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CONTENDING WITH THE FORCES
AGAINST A HAPPY HOME
Lawrence K. Ayodele
Everybody wants a happy home.
People enter into marriage relationship with high expectation of
having a happy and prosperous family. In spite of people’s
desire and expectation, happy home is elusive to most couples.
Do you know the reason for this? In as much as people want happy
homes, they are not ready to contend with the forces against a
happy home.
Satan engineers and empowers his
agents to fight against family. This battle started right from
the first family in Eden. The method that Satan adopts is the
same right from the first family till today. He operates both
within and outside the family to gain control of the family.
Recognising
the Forces Against a Happy Home
The
forces against the family dwelling together happily can be
divided into two categories.
1.
Forces
Within the Family: These operate through opposition from the
in-laws; uncooperative and compromising attitudes of the husband
or wife; demonisation of a member of the family and mischievous
activities of a second woman in the family.
2.
Forces
Outside the Family: These operate through the destructive
activities of family’s friends, concubines, neighbours,
co-workers with the husband or wife, employer/boss of the
husband or wife, false brethren, fake ministers and established
institutions.
Out of the two categories of
forces, the forces within the family is more dangerous. These
forces cannot be easily detected and without them, outside
forces cannot succeed.
Results of Satan’s Attacks in
the Family
I will like to state here that
either the forces are within the family or outside the family;
the ultimate result is to scatter the family. However, there are
series of effects that manifest in a family due to Satan’s
attack against the family: These include:
·
Unfaithfulness of
the husband and/or wife.
·
Misunderstanding
between the husband and wife.
·
Lack of mutual
trust between the husband and wife.
·
Family being under
Satan’s bondage through negative pronouncements of husbands and
wife against each other.
·
Inability of the
husband and wife to operate together as one as ordained by God.
·
Financial distress
in the family.
·
Untimely death of
husband or wife.
The Way Out
It needs to be stressed that
nobody can contend with Satan and his forces with his own power
or juju power and win the battle. God has given us the way out.
If you are to win the battles that Satan and his forces raise
against your family, you need to take the following steps.
1.
You must be born again. This will bring you out of the
dominion of Satan into the realm of victory over him, 1 John
5:4.
2.
You must be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
will empower you to have dominion over Satan, 1 John 4:4.
3.
Be watchful and be vigilance. This will help you to
recognise Satan’s subtle scheme against your family, Matt.
26:41; 1 Pet. 5:8.
4.
Allow real love to develop between you and your spouse.
This will foster unity between the husband and wife and they
will be able to operate together as one, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
5.
You must not allow communication gap to exist between you
and your spouse. This will help you to talk things over before
they could cause tension and crack in your family, Genesis 2:25.
6.
You must trust your spouse at all time. This will
destroy the arrow of disunity that Satan may launch against your
family.
7.
You should pray together with your spouse until the
battle is won. Through prayer of agreement you will be able to
confront Satan and his forces and overcome them, Matthew 18:19.
If you can take the above steps,
your marriage will be peaceful and prosperous. The major
advantage of this is that you will be able to raise godly
children. This guarantees continuity of your family and your
good name will be well protected.
For counselling and coaching to
establish a successful family, write
thecounsellor@marriagediscovery.org./
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