Relationship And Marriage Matters was taught by Rev. Dunamis Okunowo on the 13th of March 2022 at Shouts of Grace Center, Joke Plaza, Beside Trans Amusement Park, Bodija-UI Road, Ibadan.
In his teaching, Rev. Dunamis made mention of the following important points:
Song of Solomon 6:2 (KJV) My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
Beloved is a word that portrays love.
A garden is a place of relaxation; it is a place of beauty. It is to this garden that the beloved comes down to. So if the person you wish to marry doesn’t have a ‘garden’ don’t marry her/him.
To the married, your responsibility is to keep/tend each other’s garden after marriage. The first thing you should prioritize in your relationship/marriage is relationship with God.
Your priority shows where your garden is. To some people their priority is clubbing. The person you are considering to marry, what are his priorities?
When you are dull, wine is not the way out. Joy in the Holy Ghost (getting drunk in the Holy Ghost) is the way to go.
SOS 6:2 mentions three things:
1. The Bed of Spices
The beds of spices talks of the favour of God upon your destiny.
Never get married to someone that is devoid of God’s favour! How do you know a person that is devoid of favour? The Scripture says that good understanding procures favour; therefore a person that has a good knowledge of the Word of God will have favour.
In marriage, what you need for your prayers to be answered is agreement – agreement with your spouse.
God’s plan is not divorce!
Premarital sex confuses the mind, such that you lose sight of the essentials, and therefore end up marrying wrong.
Men are moved by sight, therefore wives make sure you always give your husband a good picture to behold and remember.
You need favour in your life; back-to-back failures can be overwhelming!
There is nothing as beautiful as knowing that your spouse loves you genuinely.
Making peace is better than making points. Learn to apologize and to forgive your spouse easily.
The person you marry will often times determine your priorities.
2. To feed in the garden
Don’t marry a person who doesn’t have appetite. You are what you eat! Don’t marry someone who eats carelessly.
What is the beloved eating?
Jeremiah 15:16 (KJV) Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
There is a problem if your spouse or the person you wish to marry is not eating God’s word.
God’s word never fails!
You are literarily what you eat! You cannot do beyond the strength and capacity you have. There are doors you cannot open because you lack the required strength to do so.
Your real strength is dependent on the Word of God in your spirit.
When the guy comes to ask you out, ask him how often he eats!
All of us have the responsibility of finding the Word of God for our lives – Jeremiah 15:16
3. To gather lilies
This talks of responsibilities/work.
To listen to messages of Rev Dunamis, go HERE or HERE
There is a connection between joy and marital fulfillment. The joy of the Lord in your heart is a connection point for God to do His will in your life.
Jesus said
And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. -1Jn 1:4
Your joy is not full because something good happens to you, rather it gets filled because you constantly behold that which has been written.
Your marital life has been documented. It has been written. As you behold the word daily and constantly, God will cause your joy to be full.
Never allow the devil to steal your joy. Refuse to get depressed. Stay joyful!
2. Refuse to fear
Fear is a tool in the hand of the devil to control you and keep you bound.
There are people who fear and dread marriage, so they couldn’t find a spouse.
There are people who dread child delivery, so pregnancy eludes them.
Fear is not just a feeling, fear is a spirit!
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. -2Ti 1:7
If fear is a spirit, then its operations are spiritual. It affects a lot of things spiritually. It determines a lot in the spiritual realm.
Do not fear is an admonition you will find in the scriptures over three hundred times.
Refuse that fear, because what you fear happens eventually.
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. – Job 3:25
3. Refuse to compromise
The pressure to compromise is real and constant.
The devil wants you compromising a hundred times per hour if possible. He knows that compromise short-circuits the power of God in your life.
Sin and compromise without repentance give the devil the legal ground to afflict you. Habitual sins opens the door to the hordes of hell to wreck havoc.
The power of sin is broken, and the scripture declares that
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. – Rom 6:14
Iniquity has been conquered, it has no longer a tyrannical rule over your destiny, it is a choice! And you must choose right!
Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, Go and sin no more. His voice is still reverberating across generations and it remains unchanged!
Do not be like Esau who preferred a temporary fix over a permanent blessing. Do not make yourself an enemy of God because of five minutes of lust expressed.
Do not cut off yourself from God’s favour and benevolence because of pacifying your flesh.
To be continued…
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I receive strength to do it God’s way
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY Oh Lord, help me to live above sin
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. – Rom 6:14
“I should not ask for respect right, but you can be asking for Ice cream and jewelry all the time, right? That was how you never allow me to touch you, always forming holiness!”
“So, you want to touch us before marriage, abi? So that you can taste us and sample us and then back out?”
“We are wiser now!” Pastor Dunamis said no wedding, no sex!”
“Is that even possible in this age? One man said? That pastor must be wicked”
“It is you who want to desecrate us that are wicked.” I love my pastor!”
Why did we allow these men to join us in this journey,” one woman said, getting tired already.
Her husband heard that and screamed, “You too? I have been waiting for you to speak since. We will meet at home.”
“Which home? Are we married?”
“Eh! These ones are sinners o, they are tasting something without getting married!”
“Was he not the one that convinced me that we would do our white wedding after we have sex just once and then the next thing was that my tummy shot out?”
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered. Kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals, kindly go HERE
“Kai! Wicked man!” Another woman said.
“But you didn’t tell them that you were begging me to marry you and you packed your things into my house before the wedding!”
“Is that what you would say? You are an ingrate, upon all the pot of stews I cooked for you with my money.”
“Your money? What about the laptop and the iPhone X I bought for you when I saw you were using an android?”
“Say it and let everybody hear now, shameless man! iPhone X nonsense that was always freezing when other men were buying Pro Max for their wives!”
“By the way, my wife changes her phones every month and I take care of the bill.” Another man said.
“Who wants the phones?” His wife replied.
“I want you! Today, you are in Japan, tomorrow, you are in China, I never knew I was getting married to the traveling secretary of the astronauts.”
They ranted on and on….and in the end, stopped their journey and turned back home.
They discovered that what one wife wants was already another woman’s problem and what the other doesn’t want is exactly what another is praying for.
They had to make decisions.
Tomorrow, we will be looking at the decisions they took.
Don’t miss it.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will respect my partner at all times
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord Jesus, lead me to the rightful person for me
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief – we’re not oblivious to his sly ways! (2Co 2:11 MSG)
Once upon a time, in the far far land of love city, the international association of fiancées and wives went to meet the king.
Their mission is to report the men folk for all their insensitivities and their logical ways of thinking which more than not has culminated into more confusion in relationships and marriage.
As they were going, the men folk heard about their plans. They quickly assembled themselves, ran after them and joined them in the ambitious journey.
There were arguments all through.
“You are so insensitive,” the women said.
“You are too serious for us, we want playmates.” The men replied.
“You never spend time with us, another lady bursted out, pointing particularly at her husband.”
“Where do we get the time to spend with you, when you keep asking for money everyday as we are the Central Bank? Won’t we go to work?” One newly married man said.
His wife, disappointed on hearing that retorted, “Ah you too, so you can talk? Was that what you promised me when you were begging and wooing me?”
“My fiancé called off our wedding plans three weeks to the wedding!” One young lady said.
“It is not only men that do that! One man said. Look at me, my wife-to-be left me for another man because I don’t have a car. But as I am looking at you, we can come together since we are victims of the same thing!” The man concluded, trying to seize the moment.
“I m sorry, you are not fine, you are not very tall, you have not even bought a car!” The lady replied.
“Is it wedding you want or car? I have three cars.” Another married man said.
His wife overheard him and shouted, “Ah, Mr Zerubbabel, touch any of my three cars and see if I would not tear you apart!”
The man felt embarrassed. But his friend replied the woman,
“But the cars were given to you as a gift by my friend, and technically, they are his cars!”
She does the hand sign, Dhooooor! Technically ko, Technology ni!”
“These women do not even respect us again,” one twenty-four year old guy said.
“Shut up there, you are not married, you are asking for respect.” His fiancee said.
To be continued…
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will respect my partner at all times.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord Jesus, help me to respect my partner always
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Love and respect your partner.
Carnally Minded Vs Spiritually Minded was taught by Rev. Dunamis Okunowo on the 9th of March 2022 at Shouts of Grace Center, Joke Plaza, Beside Trans Amusement Park, Bodija-UI Road, Ibadan.
In his teaching, Rev. Dunamis made mention of the following important points from Romans 8:5-13:
Verse 5
We are either controlled by the flesh or controlled by the Spirit, even as children of God. The plan of the devil is to keep you controlled by the flesh so that you would not enter the fullness of God’s plan and purpose for you. The activities you are involved in is a pointer to what we are controlled by – whether the flesh or the Spirit.
Verse 6
The first result of being carnally-minded is death. All of us have powerful glorious destinies in God, and the devil knows it. So he comes to negotiate you out of it. You are operating in the flesh anytime you reason something out without the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 7
The second problem of being carnally-minded is that it is enmity with God (it is hostile towards God). The voice of the flesh is hostile to the plans and intents of God for your life.
Verse 8
The third problem of being carnally-minded is that it cannot please God. And Heb 11:6 says that without faith you cannot please God. It therefore means that if you are in the flesh then you cannot be in faith (that’s one of the reasons a lot of our faith projects don’t pull through)
You must learn to recognize the voice of the flesh and run away from its dictates. You are to deliberately not cooperate with what the flesh wants.
Everything in life is deeply spiritual. The devil does not have a direct access to your life; what he does is to make you fleshly so that he can gain entrance into your life.
Verse 13
It is by the Spirit that you should mortify/kill the deeds of the flesh. People who are dead to the flesh don’t count insults.
Every time you know you are to pray but you don’t pray, the devil is negotiating you out of something.
To listen to messages of Rev Dunamis, go HERE or HERE
