Covenant Marriage - Session 1 - David and Lisa Mitts
““Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.”” (Revelation 19:7, NASB)
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As we prepare our hearts and minds for the prophetic hour that we are living in, there is a deliberate attack on marriage, what it is and who it is for. Gender confusion is the doctrine of the world in this hour whose aim it is, is the undermine the true importance of the bride preparing herself for the consummation of the marriage to the Lamb.
Over the next series of gatherings, we will be examining what exactly is the purpose of covenant marriage and how we can prepare ourselves and live true to the victory which is our faith, or trust in action.
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4)
Faith or trust, in Hebrew “Emunah” is a different word picture than the one often understood in many teaching contexts:
The Hebrew word for faith is אמונה (Emunah - Strong's #530) and is an action-oriented word meaning "support". This is important because the Western concept of faith places the action on the one you have faith in, such as "faith in God". But the Hebrew word אמונה places the action on the one who "supports God". It is not a knowing that God will act, but rather I will do what I can to support God. This idea of support for the word Emunah can be seen in Exodus 17:12.
But Moses' hands grew weary; so, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so, his hands were steady (Emunah)until the going down of the sun.
If we think of a marriage relationship, it is the mutual support, faith, Emunah, that is key to the marriage. You see if we think of faith as a mental agreement, and the amount of faith we have as how confident we are about a particular outcome, like “I’m believing (exercising my faith) for my healing or my provision, then we tend to think that is absent any actions on our part.
“Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17)
If on the other hand we think of faith as supporting the work of the Lord like Aaron and Hur holding up Moses hands, then we have an entirely different focus and attitude.
What does this have to do with covenant marriage and preparing ourselves as the bride of Messiah? Great question! Think of it practically in human marriage terms. For example say that my husband or wife want to accomplish something that is in their heart and part of our vision in agreement. I can choose modern ideas of faith and say “I believe in you”. Alternatively, wewould support them and demonstrate our love and commitment by looking at what we can contribute to the outcome. You see God has brought us together to complete one another. This completion is active and matches our gifts and talents.
Well, we might say, this makes sense in a human marriage but how does this make sense in our marriage to the Lord. Isn’t He “All-powerful”? Why does He need our support? Another great question, because it really dives deep into the true nature of God and why He gave the life of His Son for our salvation. John 3:16 tells us:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Our emunah, our belief in Him is connected not only to our awakening to eternal life but also is a response to His loveexpressed by the sacrifice of His Son, Yeshua. If we read on it says:
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."” (John 3:17-21)
To examine this passage, we need to shift our perspective of what believing in Him means. Look at the last verse: “he who does the truth comes to the light that his or her deeds may be seen that have been done in God”. Notice that the focus is on deeds, not just some abstract idea of faith. God loves and supports us by demonstrating our value to Him, how precious we are, by redeeming us from the slavery to the world and its darkness. We respond in love and support Him by choosing to walk open and transparent before Him, what we know as repentance, and humility that our deeds may be clearly seen by Him exposing our weaknesses and walking out choices that demonstrate our love to Him.
Weakness is the sign of love.
“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "LOVE WILL COVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS."” (1 Peter 4:8)
God’s grace is fully manifested or perfected in our weakness.
“And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
When we trust God, emunah, we walk openly before Him. We know we are weak and prone to errors but the covenant love that He has for us is transformative. He helps us in our weaknesses by His Spirit.
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26)
You see the faith that is the foundation stone of our walk with Him, isn’t about being strong bu about trusting Him in our weaknesses.
Covenant marriage exists on this foundation. The foundation stone of our dependence on His support both personally and relationally. This is one of the secrets of the kingdom.
We support each other like Aaron and Hur and it brings a steadiness to our hands, using the imagery of that passage. We are steady because we are open and vulnerable to God and in marriage to one another. We don’t try to hide our weaknesses. No! Quite the contrary, we expose them knowing that our covenant partner will support us and cover these weaknesses.
You see we can truly only love God or love Mammon. Mammon is more than money. It is the competitive nature that is driven by pride and shame.
Covenant love is non-competitive. It is supportive. It acknowledges weakness and seeks the best in the other.
Activation: Prayerfully make a list of those things you wish were not true about you, your weaknesses. Ask the Lord to be your support in those areas. Think about now, how you can support Him? What does He need from you? I know it is a strange non-religious idea to think that you have something that the Lord needs, but it true. You can discover this from Him as well. Ask, seek and knock.
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