Covenant Marriage - Session 6: Rootlessness - David and Lisa Mitts


“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:26-27)



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Giving Opportunity Message
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Last chapter, we began looking at how we listen in our heart to make possible, the bearing of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We looked at the parable of the sower in Mark’s gospel, the fourth chapter, and looked at the first heart condition, where the communication of another is snatched away by the Adversary, Satan, and cannot bear any fruit. We discovered that it is through offense, the bait of Satan, that the word or in this context, our communication with one another, is snatched away. We know it has occurred if we are at enmity with another who we once shared love with. Think of the people who once you had a closeness of heart with and now are separated by the walls of offense.

The second heart condition, described in Mark 4, is marked by rootlessness, and an aversion to persecution or afflictions.

"In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. (Mar 4:16-17 NASB)

The issue here is the absence of a firm or anchored rootedness. The result is a spiritual condition of temporariness. This temporary nature is no defense against persecution or adversity. Make no mistake about this, it is a condition of the heart that causes a falling away or what the scriptures describe as an apostasy. To put things in a context and to recognize how crucial our covenant marriages are, let’s look at 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2:

“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

Our marriages are a bulwark against the antichrist time we are living in. It is the strategy of the antichrist to undermine families, communities, and nations. An entire system of education beginning with small children and continuing through the upper grades into college, has been drumming the message of a socialistic societal structure. The very foundation stones of God creating man in His image and likeness have been replaced with godless teaching of evolution. This is a deliberate attack on the goodness of God. In our covenant marriages, we face the same steady attack through the media, tech, etc. Practically, this happens through false images of how living happily ever after is supposed to be. We awaken one day and realize that our prince charming or princess beautiful has some issues and afflictions. This shallow heart condition is a product of a romantic image of marriage and relationships that is based on the externals. It is a direct result of the entertainment industry. Casual attraction and high levels of excitement result in a heart condition of rootlessness.

Living in AZ, we are exposed to the wandering tumbleweeds that have no root in themselves. Every windstorm takes them to a new location. There are many winds blowing in the earth today. Yeshua describes this impact on our relationships like this:

“"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."” (Matthew 7:26-27)

Adversity and persecution will come into every relationship. These may come through misunderstandings or may come through the realization that the person we are in covenant withisn’t the same person we originally fell in love with. We realize that they come with baggage of a family and a history of a heart that is broken by hurts and wounds of this world. Because we have been trained by a system of superficial beauty driven ideas of love, we can lose the clarity of love as we get triggered by our own imperfections. This feels like shifting sands and can cause us to listen through a filter of mistrust.

This is the same situation that the Lord engages with, when He saves us. His salvation isn’t based on our perfection. In fact, many times we don’t really know who we are in any meaningful way, until His light comes into us, and we begin to see all the darkness that exists in our hearts and minds. He doesn’t reject us when the darkness is revealed, he just increases His light and love.

In dealing with the same darkness in our covenant partner, the only defense we have, is to open our hearts and minds to the Lord and allow Him to build the anchor of His Word into our character. The marriage vow anticipates this with words like for better or for worse, in sickness or in health, for richer or poorer. THE ROOTS are His word and our character built on that relationship.

This allows us to open our heart and remain rooted in love and listen to one another allowing for the blemishes in our personalities, or our bodies, or even our minds. Can we love past the images that may have drawn us together but cannot keep us together?

Covenant is the reality of the kingdom of God. Covenant implies weakness. The secret is the depth of our word, our promise to one another. What empowers our word is the oneness that is love. Yeshua modeled this for us when He who was God, took off His divinity and became vulnerable flesh, man.

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8, NASB)

This is the expression of the commitment of His love. It is by embracing this same attitude that we develop the roots we need to withstand the adversities of our lives.

Covenant marriage is the expression of the Lord in the earth. He is faithful and remains with us even when we make our bed in hell.

“If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.” (Psalms 139:8, NASB)

Making our bed in Sheol or Hell is an interesting statement. How does a Covenant Marriage make its bed in hell? First, we know that the marriage bed is pronounced by God to be an undefiled place.

“Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrews 13:4)

From this verse, we can glean that Hell comes to the marriage bed through “fornicators and adulterers”. “Fornicators” is a reference to child male prostitutes who engage in sexual unions with another man, known as “catemites”. This is such anabomination to the Lord that having this in the background of a covenant marriage brings God’s judgment.

Adultery is the act of seducing or raping another man’s wife. It is a violation of the boundaries of covenant. Again, this draws the judgment of a covenant God.

I believe these are just 2 examples of making our bed in hell. God does not abandon us. Yet He warns us that judgment is His to make. All of this points to a lack of solid roots or foundations.

Therefore, we are under such an assault from the media, tech, politicians and the drug companies. These “elites” are all about shifting the conversation and destroying the solid roots of our faith and our culture. Yeshua tells us that the ones who fall are the very same ones who received the gospel with gladness but lack a depth of conviction.

Make no mistake about it, we are in a mortal battle for our souls.

““For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

The world wants to sell itself to us in exchange for the roots of our faith, the anchor of our soul.

Activation: There is no quick way to develop roots. The most solid thing we can do is till the soil of our heart with the intention of developing a solidity to our conviction. How do we do that? Through sowing and reaping. Sow our time, resources and energy. This week ask the Lord to show you how develop deeper roots.

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