by Rev Dunamis Okunowo | Aug 14, 2021 | Couples
Reading Time: 2 minutes
The devil is such a bad devil. But thank God we have a good God! Left for the devil, he doesn’t want any progress for your life or marriage. So he comes up with several devices, just to keep you ultimately away from God.
He would use just anybody around you to fight and attack you and bring weariness and tiredness to your soul. He would incite strife, depression, and moodiness just to create problems.
The fire in marriage should not be allowed to go out. The fire in you as a child of God must not die.
Are you in that place and it looks your spiritual life dropped after you got married?
There could be a lot of reasons responsible for that. It could be a result of unexpected pressures arising from the transition from being single to becoming a married person. It could be that marital activities and the desire to please your spouse overtook the time you usually spend with God.
However, it is your passion for God that must be prioritized.
As David noted:
Psa 42:1 (KJV) As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
This panting, this passion, must not be substituted with any other thing!
I so much love how Message Translation puts this.
Psa 42:1 (MSG) A psalm of the sons of Korah. A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek; I want to drink God, deep draughts of God.
You must keep drinking from God, deeply. This is what ignites the fire in your soul and in your marriage.
The fire in your life must not go out. The fire in your marriage must not go out. The fire in your bedroom must not go out.
Keep the embers fired up with honesty, faithfulness, love, submission, and absolute focus on God and your spouse.
May God’s help never cease in your life and marriage!
Have a beautiful day and see you tomorrow for another word from the Lord.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY
My marital fire will not be extinguished.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Pray that you will remain on fire for God even after marriage
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Psa 42:1 (KJV) As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY
What were those things you did before getting married? Are you still doing them?
BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY
Jer 33
by Rev Dunamis Okunowo | Aug 13, 2021 | Singles
Reading Time: 2 minutes
This article is continued from yesterday.
A few things to note:
1. Let the leadership of the church be in the know with your decisions. Not with the intent of manipulating you, but to provide counsel relating to your decisions.
2. Don’t join a church for the sole purpose of getting a guy or a lady. Go there because you want to serve God.
3. Serve God genuinely and get busy for Him. When you get busy for God, God will get busy for you.
4. Let the pastor know before you ask a lady for her hand in marriage. It helps you to be orderly about it. In one of the churches where I had pastored, a guy went to propose to a lady who is already married with child. This could have been avoided if he went about it the right way.
5. Before you say ‘Yes,’ tell your pastor about it. Ask questions about him, what he does and where he is coming from. Imagine this kind of conversation:
Lady: Pastor, I will be getting married next month.
Pastor: Good. To who?
Lady: His name is Buddy
Pastor: What does he do?
Lady: I don’t really know… I think business.
Pastor: Is he born again?
Lady: He said so
Pastor: Where does he worship
Lady: ehmmm…I have forgotten the name of his church
Pastor: Is he a worker in his church?
Lady: He said he will start after marriage
Pastor: Does he drink?
Lady: He said he has stopped…. except for small stout for his health.
And so on.
Is this lady doing the right thing? No! You don’t fall in love with strangers! This is why weddings are canceled a few days before the proposed date.
6. Let God guide you, not your feelings alone. Feelings come and go, but God’s word will endure forever.
7. Become friends first. Let it grow. Don’t go and tell somebody you met two hours ago that you are in love. You cannot love somebody you don’t know! There is a difference between love and lust.
8. If a guy in church who is active or who is a leader is asking for jeru trip, disconnect from such a person, or you will soon yield to the pressures. You don’t visit such a person at home! Definitely, something will happen.
For those in courtship, do you find yourself in a situation where you think you might have made a mistake? Well, you need to stop afflicting yourself. What you need to do now is the way forward and not some regretful emotions. Get into a prayerful mode and ask God to intervene. Seek counsel from your pastors and mentors as well. God will surely send help to you and make everything new for you.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY
I will not fall in love with the wrong person
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Ask that God opens the eyes of your understanding
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. (Psalms 143:10 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY
Review your relationship
BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY
Ps 144
by Rev Dunamis Okunowo | Aug 12, 2021 | Singles
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. (Psalms 143:10 KJV)
In deciding who to marry, the singular most important factor is God’s direction. This cannot be traded with the fact that you met in church. Here is a story narrated by a lady some years back. I read the account in a Newspaper (It was either Punch or Daily Sun)
She was going out with a guy that she met in a big Pentecostal church in Lagos. Everything looked good. ‘At least they met in church,’ so she thought. The guy had a jeep and would often drop her for choir meetings and pick her up later. This went on for about six months.
One of those days after choir meeting, he came to pick her as usual. But that particular day, he seemed to be in a hurry. He asked that he needed to dash down to a place before dropping her. That was no issue for her; that was her fiancé talking!
So he drove quite a long distance and just drove and drove.
‘Sorry dear, we are almost there.’
The next thing was that he veered off the road and drove far into the bush. Then he packed, got down, dragged her down and wanted to cut off her head. The girl screamed, but there was nobody to help in the bush. He pressed the knife to her neck hard to decapitate her head, and the lady struggled. She was a little bit strong, she fought back, but the guy held the knife firmly on her neck, knowing she would become weak after losing much blood.
Then, some movements were heard. The guy jumped in his jeep and drove away, with the intention to come back for the head.
Some hunters showed up, but on seeing the sight of the girl, they ran away without offering help. The case could be turned on them.
In a daze, losing blood and already weak, this lady stood up and just began to move in just a particular direction. She got to a particular hut where she got help with herbal care and then she was later moved to town.
Of course, the ‘brother in the Lord’ was nowhere to be found.’ It was from the hospital bed that this lady narrated her ordeal.
You can read about this because she lived to tell her story. How many of these would have happened that the victims never lived to tell the story?
This story is to let you know that meeting a person in church does not automatically translate that you are in God’s will or God’s choice for your life.
You will always be responsible for the choice you make because you will always live with your choice.
There are different kinds of people in the church.
There are sincere people, deceptive people, and deceptive people who want to become sincere. There are newly born again Christians whose minds are not renewed at all. There are Christians who are still very carnal. There are those who are very religious who think being in the choir can insure their habitual sexual compromise. So you see all kind of people.
There are people who come to church not because they want to serve God but because they want a man or a lady.
Tomorrow, I will share with you lessons we can learn from the above story.
Don’t miss it!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY
I will not fall in love with the wrong person. I will not be meeting the right person at the wrong place.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Ask that God will arrange your meeting with the right person
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. (Psalms 143:10 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY
Review your relationship
BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY
Ps 143
by Rev Dunamis Okunowo | Aug 12, 2021 | Couples
Reading Time: 2 minutes
This morning, I will like to share with you how to recognize if you are going too far in a marriage. There is no child of God that outrightly proceeds into an adulterous relationship. It is usually a subtle happenstance, an innocent friendship, albeit, the subtlety and innocence would never be an excuse for compromise.
There is a difference between a platonic friendship and a romantic relationship. When you have a platonic relationship with another married person, there would be no qualms. But the moment the relationship crosses the line from platonic to romantic, there would be issues and one can be easily trapped. An emotional affair is just a step before a full-blown affair and it is as sinful as adultery.
The question then is at what point does a friendship cross from platonic to romantic?
1. When that which ought to be kept secret between you and your spouse is divulged to the other person.
This is the first sign that you are playing with fire. When a married person begins to share with you what ought to be secrets between him and his spouse, it is a good place to run away.
Or when as a married person, you begin to share with that young single lady what ought to be the exclusive reserve for you and your spouse, you are crossing the line and trying to hug some fire.
Also, when a married woman begins to look forward to seeing a single male friend, adultery is knocking.
2. When you catch yourself fantasising or daydreaming about somebody else apart from your spouse. You are travelling beyond the platonic into the romantic, and definitely, something will soon happen that might culminate into regrets later.
3. When you start discussing your marital problems with somebody else.
When a married person of the opposite sex starts discussing his marital issues or starts reporting his spouse, the conversation is probably going too far. You might be feeling cool that the person trusts you to divulge such prized information, but if you are not careful, emotions would soon be involved.
You might even have the righteousness complex where you become a counsellor, trying to encourage him or her. The problem is that compassion can turn into confusion very quickly. It is all a ploy when a married person stands before you like or she needs help from you.
What wisdom does a thirty-five-year-old married man need from a single beautiful twenty-three-year-old girl? Where are the pastors and counsellors? It is a trap. At what point did you become a counsellor? Did you read Guidance and counselling in school? Many people have attempted to counsel others like that and ended up cancelling their destinies.
To be continued…
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY
I am not careless with my destiny
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Lord, guide me from stepping into wrong paths
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. [ Pro 6:23 ]” (Psa 119:105, AMP)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY
Run away from every friendship that has crossed the line
BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY
1 Kings 9
by Rev Dunamis Okunowo | Aug 11, 2021 | Singles
Reading Time: 2 minutes
This is the concluding part of our series on what ladies need to know about men before saying ‘I do’.
We have talked about
1. Be ready to massage his ego
2. Be ready to respect him
3. Be ready to satisfy him sexually
4. Be ready to cook for him
5. Be ready to dress for him
6. Be ready to pray for him.
Pray for your husband. Don’t let your early years in marriage be characterized with quarrels and hurts and wounds. You will slow yourself down that way. Yes, he is not a good man, he is not caring, he is not loving, she is not submissive, she is not respectful…but you are married! You are one in God’s eyes. You need each other’s agreement; you need each other’s prayers!
Pray for him from the depth of your heart and support him, don’t close up your spirit on him because of some issues…support him. Never open your mouth to curse him; it would be like cursing yourself because you are one!
7. Be ready to help him
You are a helper. There are only two people referred to as ‘helper’ in the whole of Genesis to Revelation. That is the Holy Spirit and your wife!
That is why you have been told never to grieve the Holy Spirit and never to be bitter with your wife. That is why you don’t lift your hand against your helper! Ladies, be there to help him succeed. Support his endeavours.
Singles, you help your fiancée when you refuse to compromise. You are not helping him when he says ‘let’s kiss baby, and you too submit your lips for the next two hours like you are submitting a paper in the exam hall! Tell him, if you are hungry, you go by Ponmo or some cow-hide in the market, you ain’t chewing my mouth! These lips are reserved till marriage!
The power of life and death lies in your mouth, you use it to give direction to your life, not for kissing the one you are not married to! After, your marriage, you can do all of that, even for days, and God will still be excited about it!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY
I have wisdom to make my relationship work
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Oh God, help me to know what I ought to know that I do not know
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Proverbs 4:7(KJV) Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY
Pray in the spirit
BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY
Isaiah 56
