Transcript: Spiritual Oneness part 3

Video Transcript: Spiritual Oneness Part 03

Welcome to the third class on spiritual oneness within marriage. We ended up talking about how husbands can pray effectively for their wives. And of course, we need to have a section this class, how a wife can pray effectively for her husband. First of all, let's talk about pray without expecting instant results. God is always at work. As the songless wrote, he will keep she will not slumber, behold, he will keep Israel so neither slumber nor sleep. God does not work according to our timetables, pray faithfully and forever for your husband. That is your commitment of love. First Corinthians 13 tells us that love suffers long, and bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. prayed and when you don't feel like remember that, if the husband is going to be providing the covering, and will be the priest, we are second in command, when you are discouraged or frustrated, please remember that as the wife, there was a helpmate there and that has been ordained by God with what it is or not, or what is not happening in your marriage. Please just continue to pray, even if you don't feel like at God knows your heart, your dreams and desires and your sorrows. Begin your time in prayer telling your heavenly Father all about what is and what is not happen in your marriage. Or what is or what is that happening with your husband, God is and has been, and always will be faithful and good, never wrong in what he is doing. That is such a huge concept. As I began to talk to my folks, I remember one time that there was a wife that came in and she was quite frustrated with her husband and feeling that their spiritual prayer time was non existent. And yet, no matter what she said, no matter how many prayers it seemed like it did not change. 

I continue to uplift her to not give into discouragement. And one day she came to session. And she said, guess what happened? And I said what she said at my husband's work, one of his co-laborers came to him and mentioned there was going to be men's Bible study starting on Monday morning, and with my husband like to come? and by golly, he said, Yes. What was so amazing and this is this began a whole new journey for her husband and one that would eventually lead to the ability for them to be closer in their relationship. also pray expecting to do battle. You know, we talked about this quite a bit in our first part where husbands will be covering their wives. Because Satan is evil adversaries are at war with those under God's loving authority. The evil realm is constantly attacking God's people and certainly the very holy sacrament of marriage. And that's exactly why Satan does attack because marriage is a Holy Sacrament. And it is such a cut down to our Lord God and Satan would want to bring marriages down. It is vital that you see yourself as a soldier during battle. When you pray for your beloved husband. Pray knowing that the Holy Spirit is interceding as well. Sometimes we as wives don't know how to pray for our husbands but Romans 8:26 says the Spirit helps in our weaknesses for weeks, do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be hoddered. Jesus is interceded at the right hand of the Father and the Spirit is involved as well. The Holy Trinity is joining you and prayers for your husband. There is great power in that. And sometimes it might be just quietness. I was thinking of the story earlier, the wife that had taken the picture in the Bible to church, it might be just holding your husband's pitcher on your lap. And or gazing at a picture, maybe a wedding picture. And just praying that the Lord would intercede for your husband in exactly the way that he needs. Pray leaving results to God. God tells us people to pray without ceasing. And do you do as the ask and pray this way, the real comfort in praying for your husband is leaving your request in God's lap. Then Philippians four, six state, let your requests be made known to God and afterwards, you will experience the peace of God. Now what if your husband is not a Christian, you can ask God to plant within your husband's heart a desire to grow in the knowledge of God because that growth will make your husband a Godly man and a better spiritual leader for you and any children that you have to pray for this is not self serving. It is God's will for husbands to leave those in the home and his wife in a Godly way. Your dear husband just does not have that education yet. That was an example of the woman who was praying and God used another person at the husband's work. 

To intervene, to help the husband have more knowledge and leadership in being a Christian and as the head of his home, pray for a spiritual mentor. And that's exactly what happened to take your husband under his wing. This is also a request that is biblical pleases God. Paul had his Timothy to nurture and train, Joshua had his Moses to watch and learn from. Barnabas took his nephew Janmark and taught him everything he knew about serving God. God wants her husband to be mentored, and to one day mentor others. Your prayers for your marriage have power, even when you are the only one praying. That's because the two of you I want in the eyes of God. And what one does affects the other, either good or bad. The good news is that God will still bless her life, even if your spouse has to go through some things until he or she gets it. When you pray. God can rescue from any situation, even your spouse's mistakes or sins. You can even be rescued from any negative aspect of your marriage, while God works for your prayers to restore it. the prayers of a righteous man are the prayers of a righteous woman availeth much, and God will work through these prayers do your wives don't ever give up. Now let's look at some specific ways to help your husband be the spiritual leader in your marriage. Partner with him, you can partner with your husband, first of all, by understanding the pressure he is under as the point of spiritual head of his home, men hate or maybe I should say don't like but I said hate, to feel that they have let their wives down or disappointed their wives, if she was counting on them. If he has blowing it in your eyes, he probably already knows that and therefore even feels worse about himself. Ask the Lord to show you the best way to partner with him. And encourage him in the areas of the strength of being a leader in your marriage. Partner with him by believing in him as a leader. You know, the time that my husband and I were praying about the issues that our business and about how to let our light shine in the best way. I definitely was able to say to my husband, that having him join in that prayer and lead in that prayer. And the difference that made an impact in the business was amazing. And he received that bringing, of course the praise back to the Lord, but did receive what it meant to me and how it affected my spirit. 

Pray for him as you release him on your expectations. You may have a husband who was leading just not in the way you had envisioned that he would lead, to lead his home does not mean that he has to lead and family devotions every night. He may be leading in how he disciplines himself and others, what he discusses with his children, when you are not around or what he decides at work that benefits his family. Be gracious to your husband, when it comes to meeting your expectations as a leader. He is not to be dismissed from that responsibility. Only God can do that. But pray for him continually and be supportive. I had an interesting couple that this was very much a part of the issues in their relationship and the inability to be in prayer together. This woman had very high expectations of how her husband should be her father, who was a very quiet introspective man, and always brought his, he brought his personal beliefs and devotions with the Lord, at least to the family. She remembers walking out each morning. And he would be at the table reading his Bible and will usually have a verse that he was going to share with his daughter. She remembers being tucked in at night, and hearing Bible stories from her father, and then prayer time that would follow. Well, interestingly, she married a man who had great difficulty with speaking out loud, it would create anxiety to say out loud prayers. He also had dyslexia, which was difficulty in being able to read and sometimes transferring letters around. And he didn't want to read Bible stories to the children, and did struggle to say out loud prayers. And this became a huge point of contention between this couple. She kept on comparing her husband to her father, and she wanted her husband to act the same way. Now there were other things that the husband was doing. He was modeling to his children. He was an honest man. He was a hard worker. He was loving. He was patient. He was kind, but he was not as vocal about his prayers. And he also had difficulty reading. Well, when this woman started to turn around, it was with some very specific prayer time about another issue that came up and it wasn't specifically about Spirituality. 

But it brought an awareness to the woman to lead to increased ability to be with her husband in the way that he could be spiritually leading her. She had a memory. And in this memory, she had been to a party. And this was years before it was during the time of inner healing prayer that happened when this couple were at a church gathering. And in this inner healing prayer, she and her father were at a party, and it was of a graduation where a cousin, it was his children. It was his party. But this was a cousin who had been inappropriate with this wife years before that, in terms of some touch. And when they got to the party, she was there. And it was before she was married to this husband, but she was an adult. And this cousin had been drinking and was a little bit not acting appropriate for maybe I shouldn't say a lot, not act inappropriate. And he ended up giving her a hug and taking his hands and did an inappropriate touch even at that party. Her father was sitting very nearby, she would over to her father and she said. This is what just happened. And he pretty much didn't say much and just kind of shrugged his shoulders, she realized that was not protective at all. And after the healing prayer, she shared this with her husband, the same husband, who had struggled with reading out loud, the same person out loud. He was furious. And her husband said, I would have addressed that situation. And he would have known that would have never happened to my wife. And we would have left that party immediately. All of a sudden, her expectations began to change, because she saw a side of her husband that started to emerge that was very protective, and very much was a leader in the relationship of their marriage. And with that new revelation, she was able then to start to see her husband through a new lens of how he could be a leader to her and protective to her. And it led into more spiritual awakening. 

Her husband was very willing to have some prayer time. He just liked it to be quiet. Or he was able to find prayers. And he downloaded them and put them on an app on their cell phones, and they would listen to them together. But he ended up being the one to pick these prayers out. He was protecting his wife that way. He actually had a very strong priests side, it was amazing to watch that change after she had that epiphany of how much he would protect her. Also praise Him continually. The man in him will want to continue doing what he feels he is doing well. Yes, there may be times he does not lead effectively, but find something you can praise. His initiative his courage and taken a step, his desire to do what was best. As he stepped out and leads he needs to know you are supporting him and the two of you are a team. So I want to talk a bit about some other practices that help for spiritual oneness. And this is one of the practices is worshiping together. Now, many couples find that their personalities and backgrounds make it difficult for them to worship together. That is where the idea of worship can be a discipline and that comes into play. If worship is going to be something we do together as a couple. And if this means we have to get beyond our own comfort zones, and it will take practice. And perhaps the best place to practice is with each other. Let's look at the definition of the word worship. Worship comes out of the Old English word worth skype. This word meant that someone ascribed worth to the object of their worth skype or worship. And our context as Christians worship is the act or actions whereby we ascribe great worth to God. This is especially clear in the passage in Revelation, where the 24 elders say, Oh Lord, You are worthy. It is seen again in Revelation five where John hears the singing of millions of angels surrounding the throne, and the living beings and the elders. The lamb is worthy loudly they say, the lamp who was slain, He is worthy to receive the power and the riches and the wisdom and the strength and the honor and the glory and the blessings. Do these words not resonate? Can you think of a time in a worship experience a corporate worship experience, or worthy of the land was saying and it's like there is an energy and a power and the presence of the Holy Spirit is so strong, that comes right from Revelation, and talking about how Harlem is so worthy. And there we go. 

Being able to know that corporate worship is very important for a part of what happens between a husband and wife. Regardless of which service or church you are going to attend before going to worship, take some time to pray together, asking God to meet you as a couple in a fresh new way. Ask him to prepare your hearts together for what he wants you to experience together, then plan to arrive at the service five or 10 minutes early. These are some of my suggestions, spend some time reading over the scripture passage, there'll be read in the service, when you leave the service, avoid the tendency to talk about what you liked, or did not like about the service. How many times my couples tell me that they will have arguments on the way to church, or arguments on the way home and are often they'll start to nitpick what happened in that service, something that was said, or something that happened during the coffee fellowship time. And a way to get around that is focus on what God was showing you and your conversation with God. And then share that with each other, the personal part of that, and let that be something that the two of you can share. That could be very, very powerful. How about scripture to support corporate worship Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching it admonishing one another in our wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And how about Hebrews 10:25, not neglecting to meet together as as the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more, as you see the day drawing there. 

But you know, there can be worship with just the two of you, talk with each other about the Lord quoting songs and singing and sacred songs and making music in our hearts to the Lord. This could be listening to praise music, and then picking a particular phrase to comment and talk about in terms of the importance to you, couple of suggestions that I've actually shared those, think about the couple that had difficulty with prayer. And then worship and music was brought into the context of their session. Now that was worship just with the two of them. And I got to be a part of it too, or how both the dear fellow that could not speak prayers out loud. But he downloaded and created prayers from an app on his phone and chose those prayers and brought them for the wife to hear. That was worship between the two of them as well. Now, how about combining worship with prayer meditation study, an example could be a biblical definition of love. This is another little prayer that I'm going to share and you can use this. For both of you, you could put your spouse's name in this and bring in about an awareness of spiritual oneness and the covering for the Lord. 

Please recite the following and place your husband or wife's name in the blank spaces, Lord, let my love for my spouse Be patient in kind helped me not to be envious or boastful or proud in our relationship helped me never to dishonor my husband or spouse, or be self seeking, protect me from being easily anger toward my husband or wife. And let me refuse to keep a record of any type of wrongs to my wife or husband. And don't let me delight in evil, but instead rejoice with the truth. Let me always protect and trust my wife or my husband may always have hope for our relationship and never fail. You know, God understands the challenge of living out his definition of love and worship, asked him for help in specific areas. He wants your marriage to succeed in this even more than you do. Make a copy of this personalized prayer together and keep it in with you. Maybe in your purse, maybe in your wallet and commit to saying out loud to each other at least once or twice a week. That is very, very important. How about keeping the Sabbath day holy, then God bless the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating what he had done. Is that not powerful? Sabbath, develop a rhythm of setting apart 1 24 hour period each week. Most of us work a five day week but need another day for doing the activities of life. There are work for us that might include paying bills, fixing the car, or working on the house. Take some time to reflect on the four characteristics of the biblical Sabbath, stop, rest, delights, and contemplate.

What will it mean to stop and rest rather than use us as one more day to get things done? What might be the Lord showing you regarding your marriage? So we have the concepts that I'm talking about in this marriage number three section The buisiness may stop that from happening. Getting to the Sabbath, could actually bring time for that reflection, time for the prayer. Time for the worship. Sabbath can be so important for marriage and for rest. So I certainly wanted to include that as part of spiritual oneness. How about confession to one another? Why is it necessary? And how does it work? What are the definitions Webster gives for confess is to own or admit as true. This comes closest to what is meant by the Greek word translated confess, which literally means my words are in agreement with what is the two things, the words and what the words are connected to I the same thing. If I'm confessing to being rude, then my words will be in agreement with my rude behavior. And probably confession is going to be needed. How about the discipline of confession, and I'm going to give you an example of a couple inches to moment and who definitely were able to have this confession in their marriage. It's happened in the early church, the principal was described in James 5:16, which said that Mitra falls to one another and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. In the early fellowship, people confess to one another. However, over time, confession became more formal. Eventually, this role was given to those in leadership and priests became the ones to whom people confess their faults. But because of the finished work of Christ, no other mediator is now necessary. First Timothy 2:15, for there was only one God, and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity the man, Jesus Christ. However, having a discipline or confession, think about as a pastor, as a therapist, we have folks come to us, marriages come to us, and they want to talk about the issues and have a time of confession, because it is such a burden. 

Now, that certainly does not mean that we will not direct them right back to the Lord God, and that they're doing confession and their own prayer time, as well. But if we confess our sins to one another, there can be healing. I want you to know that, again, there was an example and this comes from, again, the book right by Dr. David Stoop. And in the very sense of this couple was beginning to talk he was saying that couples will often lose sight with our mate, and we will start to withdraw and a discipline of confession will lead us to a renewed sense of freedom. This couple the man's name was John and he came to see this therapist, and has named Dr. David Stoop, because he was having trouble concentrating at work. As we talked, it became clear that he had been with an oversensitive conscience, he was convinced that he was a horrible person, that he spent most of his energy in a self absorbed, self examination, that left little room for anyone else. Now, in a clinical sense, I would say that this man was struggling from anxiety. And he was obsessing and ruminating about every possible emotion, and how bad of a person that he was. So the therapist asked him if his wife knew how much he struggled with a view of himself. He said, Oh, no, no one knows. You're the first person I've told. Now there was the aspect of confession in the session. So in this session, Dr. Stoop talked to him about the possibility of bringing his wife and so they could talk about these concerns. Finally, he agreed. And when he confessed to his wife how obsessed he was about his failings, she warmly replied, John, I know your struggle. I've been praying and pray that she would finally be able to talk to me. Because you've always resisted, or I've sensed that you had a wall up and you would not speak to me. I'm so glad that you could finally tell me about this struggle. John said they are stunned for a moment and then said, Wow, I can't believe I told her, I feel a sense of hope finally, I feel freer. You see, that confession, brought about an ability to stop the internal struggle, what a relief to give up the weight of our excuses. And actually, this man because of the oneness of his marriage, needed to be able to have a confession time to his wife, beyond even what he was going to be doing with the Lord God, because he didn't feel worthy to do this with the Lord God. When he was able to do it with his wife and within the therapy experience, he was able then to do it with the Lord God. And this became a healing part of confession in their marriage. confessing our sins to our spouse confession is clearly a discipline because it is not easy as a husband and a wife, to confess faults to each other. 

The reasons are many, but no one knows us better than our spouse and no one knows better the things we are in denial about. We can deceive ourselves, but seldom can we deceive the one with whom we live. And please, I want to share just a couple of guidelines. For one confession is happening. Listen, when your spouse is confessing to you active listening is the key. This may sound obvious even simplistic, but it is always where confession must begin. While most people think that good communication requires learning how to talk, the real key is learning how to listen. Also, be quiet. Stay with your husband or wife physically, don't leave the room to use the bathroom for example, touch your spouse, even if you are quiet and thinking, touch will let your spouse know that you are still present and involved. Please do not talk too soon. allow at least no less than five or 10 minutes before any response for men. More specifically, try to not jump in and be helpful. Remember, this is that aspect or men want to jump in, and they want to fix it, but rather continue to be very quiet and continue to listen. In doing so, this will give the ability for the spouse to continue to talk and it's so powerful. Don't pry, one sure way to close down confession is to try to force the other person to go beyond what he or she wants to say. To pry maybe her by asking too many questions or by saying things that begin with you only feel that way because. Let your spouse determine how much will be shared and where he or she wants to stop. Please pray that your spouse will sense your concern and your interest in what is being said. Notice that wife when her husband John, finally was able to tell her the things that he'd been struggling with. This was not a wife who had been prying to get to that information. 

It was a wife who had surrendered her understanding of her husband or her concern of her husband to the Lord. And in her husband's timing, he finally was able to tell her, also keep confidences remember that what your spouse shows shares with you is now private, then your plural is referring to only you and your mate. An important part of trust is knowing that when you share with each other, that never goes beyond the other unless you both agree to share it with someone else. I remember one couple I was working with. And they actually had quite a healthy prayer and spiritual intimacy. And then it started to change. And it became much more tense. And upon some discussion in our therapy session it was because of this keeping confidences, there would be things that the husband was telling the wife, and she would end up speaking about this to their children. And to a very good friend, that was the wife's friend, the husband did find out and was devastated. And the wife dismissed it by saying I was just talking to them so they could be praying to. Now I understand that might have been her rationale however. The confidence and the intimacy of the prayer time between the wife and the husband still needed to come above any type of sharing. And that confidence was first and foremost, and should be remaining private. 

How about specific to begin confessions, pick a time in a day each week for this spiritual practice. Start with sharing some of your child and adolescent memories, specifically some of the sins that may have been done to you. And then you can talk about the here and now issues. Confession is verbally agreeing with what is going on in your life currently. Confession marriage may include the offenses that had been wrongly committed against your spouse. Now, when I talk about this, why I'm saying that sometimes confession can begin with something that happened in the past. Because maybe if there's something that's happening, and we're currently in a relationship, it will be too difficult to talk about something from the past, doesn't bring it first and foremost, to the current. But it still can give some idea of how your spouse is going to be hearing you talk about something from the past. You know, when I got thinking about this, I was thinking about there was an example of a man or wife and the man started by telling his wife that when he was a teenager, he got into having the unhealthy habit of smoking. And he would steal cigarettes from his father and sneak this and never wasn't a sin that happened to this man. It was something that he felt that he had done to his parents. It didn't happen very often. So they didn't catch him. Because if he did it in the middle of the night by the morning, the smell was gone or he would sneak out his window and so most of the smell went outside, but he's still bore that burden of doing something that was unhealthy and stealing from his parents to do it. Now interestingly enough as that started to happen. 

Part of the reasoning he shared that is because currently in his life with his wife, occasionally he was still smoking. It would happen when he was at work, it would happen when he was in the car, she never told her. He had a feeling it probably still has some connection back to his childhood. And he did have somewhat of an addictive personality. He wasn't a chain smoker, it didn't happen very often, but when he was under a lot of stress. So once he knew that he could confess something from his past, it gave him the courage to then talk to his wife about what was happening in the here and now. And when he was honest with her, and was able to tell her, it brought them to the ability to have more accountability and confession about this particular issue, and and eventually this husband did not have that issue anymore. And because of the confession, there was a release and that burden was gone, and he became completely a nonsmoker. The discipline of confession leads to a renewed sense of freedom. All of us struggle to make peace in our own hearts confession as a way to stop this internal struggle. When we can agree with God about ourselves and met our faults, our struggles and our fears to our partner, we can begin to relax and amen to that. Confession helps us to avoid sin, and a very real sense. Whatever is unconfessed in our lives still owns us. The things that are hidden have control over us. Proverbs 28:13 says, a man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance. So how about looking at that as a very need for confessing and why it is so important and in this proverb, there is connection between confessing and forsaking, confessing can bring us closer and not only to each other, but to God. Often when we confess something to the other person that can lead to a meaningful time of prayer together. 

Thus the discipline of confession enriches the discipline of prayer, and for the husband and wife, confession will help us grow in our marriage. If you think of confession is bringing something out of darkness into light. The analogy with growth can be very obvious. Notice how the man who brought the whole aspect of the smoking out of the darkness into the light, very little growth in darkness, nearly everything in life requires light for growth. What is true in the natural world is just as true in the spiritual world. In fact, keeping that hidden sin in darkness, could very likely have created more of an addiction. And once it was brought out into the light with confession, he was able to get to the point of becoming a nonsmoker. Confession leads to confession. Often the ability to confess to your spouse can lead the spouse to confession in a similar fashion. Confession can lead to mutual self disclosure, and that leads to a greater sense of intimacy with each other within the marriage. confessional paves the way to forgiveness if the offense or sin was committed against the spouse. This is especially helpful when the couple is at an impasse and hearts are hardened. Forgiveness is very necessary. As learned in the forgiveness session. Remember the whole class on forgiveness. However, reconciliation is optional, and may not always happen. However, in marriage, forgiveness should always move towards reconciliation. I do not think it is optional in marriage. It could be maybe optional in other relationships, because we don't have control over all of our relationships. And we don't have control in our marriage either. But if marriage is based on that oneness principle, and forgiveness comes and there's been confession, there needs to be reconciliation or the working towards reconciliation. Even in the most intimate and spiritually connected marriages forgiveness will still be necessary for two completely different human beings to live together in harmony. There are bound to be disappointments, misunderstandings that hurts, the husband and wife must continually be bearing with one another, and forgiving with one another.

The reason I'm talking about forgiveness is just a part of this class is because if forgiveness is needed, and it has not taken place, it will impede and stop the ability to be spiritually intimate. When Jesus was asked by his disciples if we need to forgive others, as many as seven times he said that 70 times seven was more like Hebrews 8:21 or 22. Please do the math. That's 490 times. The point is that a husband and wife will need to forgive as often as is necessary, and the Lord will bring the ability to do so. And with true forgiveness and reconciliation that absolutely leads the way to have the incredible journey of intimate spiritual connection and intimate prayer as a couple. A power couple as a praying couple. And I want to give you a closing prayer. But I want to make made known a little story again about a power couple who was a praying couple and something that amazing that happened. This was a couple that came for a different marital issue. It wasn't because of their spiritual intimacy or their prayer time, that was incredibly healthy. It was because they had a child who had been diagnosed with a very serious medical illness. And that ended up being a great part of their therapy and healing with the family. 

So the fact that their prayer life was so strong, there became an experience that they shared with me. And it is a testimony of what happens when there's that connection. They always had a prayer time in the morning before they each went to work. And it was a particular morning, and we're from Michigan, and the weather was horrendous. And as the husband was holding the wife, and providing that coffin and praying over her, and this prayer time only lasted probably five minutes because they were heading to work. He was stabbed and prompted in his spirit, to say to the wife, that he was feeling that she needed some extra protection. And he said, I don't know why I'm feeling this. But he immediately started to pray for physical protection for his wife. He immediately prayed that she would be kept safe. He prayed angels to come around his wife and all of her doings that we're going to be happening that day. And at the end of the prayer, he had tears coming down his cheeks, because he said he was feeling that so strong, that she needed that extra prayer. Well, they then parted for that day, they both took separate cars. And they went to work and they work their full workday. By the end of that afternoon, that day, there was on the radio and on the TV, there was warnings that people should start to stay off the road or get home as quickly as possible. There was a severe winter warning that was coming in. And the wife had a 30 minute drive. And so the husband to get back to their home. Now the wife was trying to be very safe and she was driving very carefully. But as she hit a road that was close to their house, and it was a country road. She ended up going into a complete 360 spin. She felt the car lurch and she went headfirst into the ditch. And it was a huge snowdrift. And fact the snow was so high that she couldn't even get her door open. She could get the window down, but she could not get her door open to get out of the car. And this was a country road. There were hardly any cars that were going by in this road. 

Thank the Lord for cell phones, she ended up calling her husband by cell phone. He was only about five minutes from that place where she went off the road and he had a truck that was four wheel drive. He came to rescue his wife, because he had already been given direction and intercession from the Lord that morning to pray for his wife that she would be safe. I mean, praise God that she didn't have a rollover, praise God that she didn't end up upside down. And having something caved in at her car, praise God that she was kept safe. And this couple because of their prayer time that happened everyday I believe that the Lord gave him the spiritual insight, to be aware even ahead of time that his wife needed extra recovering that morning and protection from our Lord God, and for ministering angels. And the husband was obedient, and then he was able to be there to help his wife, get out of that situation and call a tow truck and eventually get her home safe. So let's go to the closing prayer. Father, we thank you for our marriage, we honor the truth that you have ordained that we be together. For we know that two are indeed better than one. There is good return as we labor in life together, we can help one another in times of failure because clearly we all stumble at times. We praise you for the warmth, of being together and oneness with you. And for the strength we have together with you to defend our marriage and family against the assaults of this world. We acknowledge this great truth that a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. You God our Father, Savior and Lord and we are blessed that your very life weaves our marriage together into an increasingly strong and durable core. Amen.