FW: [PraiseNews] God's Counsel or man's?

Here's more information about the topic of who to listen to God's Word or Man's

To Re-Marry after a Divorce is The Sin of ADULTERY for the couple involved

That would mean YOU by marrying that man regardless of what any man may tell you is in fact risking your eternal soul because you have done it even though it was told you not to do it because God hates Divorce & the bible references have been put before you to check for yourself, so your decision is now are you going to listen to the word of man or the Word of God – would you be open to having a pastor speak to you in more detail about this? If you’d like to speak with the pastor here as well as some of his lay counselors I can forward your phone number if you’d care for me to send it along to the ministry

Praying that God opens your eyes to His Truth & your ears to His Word & your Heart for His Teaching & in the name of Jesus that you make the right choice to save your soul & that you’ll turn from the flesh to the Spirit of God

-----Original Message-----
From: praisenews-bounces@marriagehealing.net [mailto:praisenews-bounces@marriagehealing.net] On Behalf Of Ministry
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 9:10 AM
To: Ministry
Subject: [PraiseNews] God's Counsel or man's?

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Praise Reports

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Me and my wife are still seperated after 2 months, but I can

feel the hands of God over us on a regular basis. Once I

learned that his battle is not mine to be fought that God

was my attorney and judge - that things would begin

changing. My wife is starting to tell me things that she

was holding off on, just simple things like about how work

is driving her nuts - 2 months ago she would not have told

me anything. We still talk, I speak to my girls every

night, and wheter she tells me she loves me everything or

not, I make sure to tell her - and I noticed last night, she

did not slam the phone down like usual, she waited to hear

it. I pray for all of you as you pray for us, as I was told

yesterday by a great and dear friend. Prayer does not

return void ~ therefore we pray for each other.

Ray R., LA, USA

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God's Counsel or Man's counsel

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This message can be heard at:

http://Radio.MarriageHealing.ORG/woe.htm

Today I want to talk about a subject that is probably dear

and near to all of us who are listening to this message,

because in one form or another this has touched our lives

either personally through our own relationship or through

the relationships of our loved ones such as our parents, our

children, or perhaps those who are near to us, friends,

relatives. And the subject that I want to talk about is the

subject of divorce. Recently our ministry has been doing a

lot of counseling with couples who are in the process or on

the verge of divorce, and for many years we did our ministry

almost exclusively with one individual. While we still do

that, we are now doing a lot of interaction with both

parties in the relationship. This is an exciting time for

us, because it positions us to be able to do, we believe,

even more good than we were doing before, because we have an

open door to actually speak into the life of the party who

is most determined to pursue the course of divorce.

So what I want to talk about today is, first of all, the

counsel that these people are receiving across the land by

pastors. And when I use the term pastors, I have to say that

I'm using it very loosely, because when I run into a couple,

as I am doing quite often, and one of those two people tells

me that their pastor or more than one pastor has advised

them that it is acceptable for them to pursue a divorce, and

that they are supporting a decision to pursue a divorce, as

a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it makes my

stomach turn. So I want to take a look at some things

straight out of the word of God, and I want to begin with

some scriptures out of the book of Ezekiel that I believe

apply to this particular situation. This message is really

directed at the sheep; this message is directed at those who

either have already received such counsel or may in the

future receive such counsel, and we want to set the record

straight as it is found in the word of God. So at this

point let's just open with a prayer and reading of the word,

and then we will look at this issue a little bit more

closely.

Father God, we just ask you to illuminate our hearts and our

minds. Lord, we invite your Holy Spirit to be the teacher.

Lord, we don't want to lean upon our own understanding, and

we don't want to interpret your word through carnal

mindedness. Father God, your word says that the word is of

no private interpretation; and every one of your sheep hear

your voice; and, Lord, you have written your laws upon the

heart of every one of your sheep. Lord, your word says that

your sheep follow your voice. So, Lord, as we examine your

word and as we examine this matter, we just ask that your

Holy Spirit will destroy every falsehood and every

stronghold that has been established by the devil and his

"ministers of the righteousness", as your Word calls them.

Lord, we know that not all men who say, Lord, Lord, are your

people, and we know that the agents of the devil disguise

themselves as ministers of righteousness, as it says in the

book of Corinthians; so, Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit

and your holy word would be in operation together during

this message to bring the light to those that have had their

eyes and their understanding darkened. Lord, we ask that

your word and your Holy Spirit will bring life to those that

are on a path that leads to destruction. Lord, you said

there is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end

thereof is destruction. Lord, turn your people from the

path that leads to destruction and lead them in the way that

leads to life. We just ask it in the name of your son.

Amen.

Please turn with me to Jeremiah Chapter 23 in your Bibles.

We're going to read the first few verses here to put this

message into its proper context. It says, "Woe be unto the

pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,

saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of

Israel against the pastors that feed my people: Ye have

scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not

visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of

your doings, saith the Lord. And I will gather the remnant

of my flock out of all the countries whither I have driven

them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they

shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds

over them, which shall feed them; and they shall fear no

more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith

the Lord."

Amen. Now, this word in the King James, which is what I'm

reading out of, the word woe, it means alas. It actually

comes from another word. It's just like an exclamation mark

of surprise or shock or alarm. And the Lord is displeased,

as we can see from this particular scripture, with men whose

responsibility it is to feed and to care for his sheep, and

the Lord has a very specific warning for those men when they

scatter his flock, for example. And the word scatter used

here means to be dispersed; it means to break or to shatter;

it means to dash to pieces. And this certainly is a fair

picture of what happens when this type of a person counsels

a man and a woman to break or to shatter or to scatter what

God has joined together.

You know, the Lord says elsewhere in his word that we are

not to put asunder, which means to divorce. We are not to

put asunder what God has joined together. And when a man

and a woman are married, the Bible says that they are no

longer twain but one. In other words, they're not two

people anymore. And when you look at children, children, by

their physical nature, are a representation of what God has

done between the parents in the supernatural. Let me say

that again. Children in their physical representation are a

picture of what God has done in the supernatural. Okay? In

other words, when you look at a child, you see the two

parents who have become one. You don't see the father only,

you don't see the mother only, you see both of them in that

child. That child is a living picture of the relationship

which exists between the father and the mother. So to break

that, to scatter or shatter that, is anathema, it's against

the word of God. The Lord has a warning for that type of

people who call themselves pastors and yet perform that type

of disservice to the body of Christ. He says, "I will visit

upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord." That's a

pretty serious warning and I wouldn't want to be a man or a

woman who has put themselves or has been put in the position

by the Lord of caring for the sheep. Their responsibility

is to edify the sheep, to bring about healing, to bring

about reconciliation.

When a pastor counsels a man or a woman that they should

pursue divorce, that man has invited the curse of God upon

his life. We never counsel divorce in our ministry. In

seven years we have never counseled anyone to get a divorce.

We have a belief about divorce that comes from many years of

studying the scriptures, and our belief can be summarized in

a nutshell by saying this: You know, there was a time and a

place where God found it just to divorce Israel. Now,

that's a whole teaching and that's a whole subject in itself

that we're not going to really get into at the moment, but

when God found it just to do so -- and, by the way, just

because he did so doesn't mean that the covenant which he

had with Israel was broken or destroyed forever.

I believe that God has an everlasting covenant with Israel

that he established, nevertheless there was a period of time

where God did divorce Israel. And we believe that, if and

when there may be a time in the life of a believer that a

divorce, by God's just intervention, should occur, God will

bring it about. In other words, we believe that God will

lead a man or a woman to do that, however you want to

interpret that, through the counsel of a wayward pastor,

through just stubborn self-will, through adulterous affairs,

through whatever means that person who pursues that divorce

may find, we believe that it will happen. In other words,

the believer, the disciple of Jesus Christ, never need

pursue a divorce, because if the only way for that party,

who may be getting injured, who may be living in some kind

of torment, if the only way for that person to get relief

from that situation is by prayer, by wise counsel, by

trusting in the Lord, and perhaps they will become the

victim of a divorce; in other words, God may bring about

through circumstances a situation where the guilty party

will impose a divorce upon the other party.

We've seen that happen countless, countless times, and we

believe that a disciple of Jesus Christ can trust the Lord,

and can walk in his ways, and can apply the teachings of the

scripture, particularly when it comes to the matter of

forgiveness, not holding onto bitterness and resentment, and

loving the other party, trusting the Lord, we believe there

are times when the Lord will bring about a relief, because

the other person more times than not, I believe this is

almost always the case, is proving themselves to be an

unbeliever by their very actions.

In the book of I Corinthians 7, let me just read it to you,

and we'll all turn there, starting with verse 10, says, "And

unto the married I command ..." This is the apostle Paul

writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so this is

really the Holy Spirit writing. "And unto the married, I

command, yet not I, but the Lord..." That's an important

point to get at the beginning of this. The apostle Paul

makes it crystal clear that this is not the command -- and,

by the way, a command isn't a suggestion, a command isn't a

good idea. A command is an absolute, irrevocable,

irrefutable requirement. A slave, which we are in Christ

Jesus, as the word of God says that we were purchased with a

precious price, which was the blood of Jesus, and, of

course, you hear the apostle Paul that we're looking at

right here, we hear him speak oftentimes of being a bond

servant, which is just another word for a slave, so a slave

has no will. You know, people talk about free will, but a

slave has no free will. A slave is under the ownership, the

direction, and the will of the master. So if you be in

Christ, you don't have a free will anymore. You may have an

ability to make choices, but you are charged rightfully,

because of your status, and the benefits which you enjoy as

a son or a daughter of the most high God, you are charged to

obey. And so when the Lord gives a command we don't have

any room to debate, and discuss, and decide whether or not

we like that, we only have one right option, and that is to

say, yes, Lord.

So the apostle Paul writes, "And unto the married, I

command, yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart

from her husband." Now, that word depart is the original

Greek word chorizo, which means to separate, divide, put

asunder, basically is a reference to divorce. It is

specifically a mention of divorce in the Greek. So what the

word is saying here is a woman is not to divorce her

husband. And really it even says more than that. It really

says that the woman is not to separate from her husband,

she's not to leave the home, she's not to go out and be on

her own, even if she doesn't divorce. Now, that brings up a

whole other issue of people would say, What about when a man

is physically abusing his wife? Well, we're not going to

cover that today just because of the amount of time we have

to finish this message, but we do counsel people, and if you

are dealing with that problem in your life, then you can

contact our ministry through the web site contact page and

we'll be happy to counsel with you and instruct you in the

word of God, and help you to deal with those things in a

practical way, because they must be dealt with, and we do

not believe that a woman should just foolishly put herself

in a place of danger to be beaten. I just want to make that

very clear, we do not believe that. Nevertheless there are

ways to deal with that kind of a situation wisely, in love,

in forgiveness, in trust, which is a key thing, that God

will honor your faithfulness and your obedience, and God

will bring a solution for you. When you honor his word,

he'll work on your behalf. We give counsel to people who

are actually in that kind of situation, but for now let's

stay on track.

"Let not the wife depart from her husband." Now, that's a

command of the Lord. So any pastor who tells you, you have a

right to divorce your husband, is deceived. He's a man who

is giving you ungodly counsel. "But and if she depart..."

So you see, the Lord is saying, I don't want you to leave

him, but there are situations, as the one I just mentioned,

where perhaps a man is beating you, where the Lord knows you

really can't just continue in that situation, it wouldn't be

good, it wouldn't be righteous, and it wouldn't be producing

any change, any reconciliation to just go and take a beating

every day, so the Lord knows that there may be a time where

you have to disengage your physical body from that kind of a

situation. He goes on to say, "But and if she depart, let

her remain unmarried." And that certainly means let her

remain chaste, let her remain uninvolved with another man.

"... or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the

husband put away his wife", which again is a reference

specifically to divorce, but it's a little different word,

and that's the Greek word aphenemae, which means to leave,

to forsake, to let alone, to send away; and, again, it's a

very specific reference to divorce, and divorce is

specifically mentioned, it's not just inferred. So the man

is not to neglect his wife, he's not to let her go, give her

up as a debt. The man is obligated to care for his wife and

not to divorce her.

Now, it goes on to speak to "the rest." Now, I'm not sure

exactly who the rest is, because this begins with the

married. He's talking to the married, both the wife and the

husband, and then he goes on to say, "And to the rest I

speak" or "to the rest speak I", so I believe that "the

rest" means all married people in general, not just the wife

or the husband in their specific capacity. And he says, "But

to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a

wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with

him, let him not put her away." So those men that attempt

to claim that, on the counsel of their pastor, they have a

right to divorce their wife because she's an unbeliever,

that's not scriptural and we can see right here and

elsewhere as we go on in this verse, in this chapter, that

counsel is anti-Christ, that counsel is ungodly, and it's

clearly contrary to the word of God. And we're going to

expose that as we continue here. "But to the rest speak I,

not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife --" Now, this is

Paul's understanding. It's clearly not a command by God,

but he's interpreting or elaborating on his understanding

and his revelation, and it's still good. It's very good.

I'm sure it's exactly what the Holy Spirit wanted him to

write.

You know, any brother, that's a believer, a disciple, a

follower of Jesus Christ, "if he has a wife that believes

not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put

her away." So do not divorce her. That's what the Lord is

saying here through Paul. "And the woman which hath a

husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell

with her, let her not leave him." Okay? So this is crystal

clear here. Even if your wife's an unbeliever, even if your

husband's an unbeliever, you shouldn't have married him in

the first place, but now that you are married, don't divorce

him, don't separate yourself from him. You are to continue

to live as husband and wife.

And this is the principle under which the Lord says: "For

the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the

unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; else were

your children unclean, but now they are holy. But if the

unbelieving depart, let him depart." In other words, if the

unbelieving husband or the unbelieving wife divorces the

believing mate, then don't resist it. Don't resist it.

That's God's just rescue for a believer who is unevenly

yoked together with an unbeliever. So, see, that unbeliever

doesn't know that they're damning themselves and they're

bringing the curse to bear upon their life, and they're

opening themselves up for eternal damnation, because they

don't know the Lord, and because they don't have a

relationship with the Lord, because they are not sanctified

by the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, they were

sanctified, because they were one with their believing mate.

Their believing mate, by the grace of God, gave them a

covering of sanctification. Because of the blood of Jesus

that washes away our sins and makes us right with the Lord,

that makes us the righteousness of the living God; because

we are one blood, because we are one by the supernatural

grace and power of God, that unbelieving mate is sanctified.

But when they file a divorce against a believing mate, they

put themselves back into eternal damnation unless someday

they should repent, and call upon the name of the Lord, and

be saved, which is certainly possible. But this is very

clear.

We're running out of time. We want to continue this

message. We'll just make it part 2, but we got a good start

and we've laid a good foundation. If you are a person that

for whatever reason under the sun you're frustrated, you're

hearing this message, you've tried everything that you know

how to do and there is no way, you are convinced that there

is no way that you and your mate can reconcile, and you have

even gone so far as to seek counsel from someone called a

pastor, and that pastor has counseled you toward the course

of divorce rather than the course of reconciliation, I say

that you are at risk of eternal damnation. I say that you

are listening to someone that is giving you ungodly counsel,

clearly contrary to the word of God, and the word of God

says that. So much more importantly than what I say, the

word of God says that, and we have looked at that today.

We will look at it again in even greater detail. Anyone who

wants to know the truth, and wants to agree with God, you

know, the word of God says, "Let God's word be true, and

every man a liar." Let me tell you something, beloved, if

any man is telling you something that is contrary to what

the word of God clearly says, and that man calls himself a

pastor, you better flee, you better run from that man,

because that man will lead you into hell or at the very

least will lead you into some very, very hard times and a

lot of trouble in your life that you just don't need or

want.

There's a saying. I want to close with this. We've all

heard it before. Not all that glitters is gold. Just

because a man says he's a pastor doesn't mean squat. Just

because a man got a certificate from some seminary doesn't

mean anything. If that man isn't filled by the Holy Ghost,

and if that man isn't giving you the word of God, straight,

by the Spirit of God, because, you see, even the letter of

the law kills, according to God's word; he's not only got to

know the letter of the law, but he's got to have the Spirit

of God dwelling in him, and the Spirit of the Lord will lead

us toward life, the Spirit of the Lord will lead us toward

forgiveness, and reconciliation, and surrender of self.

We're going to continue this when we move into part 2, but

we thank you for listening. We trust that the word of God

has been good to you, and has helped to open your eyes, and

we pray that every person that's heard this message will

pursue the Lord, will get into his word, because the time is

drawing near for the Master to return. God bless you and

keep you.

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M.H.I. Weekly Teleconferences

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Greetings,

A reminder regarding our Saturday teleconference. If you

haven't done so, please mark your calendar and plan to be in

attendance. These teleconferences are credited by many with

changing their lives and their walk with the Lord...

You can call in using Skype (skype.com) if you do not have

or cannot afford long distance calls.

This week: "The Heart of the Matter" (continued)

Come fellowship, study to show yourself approved, pray,

worship and engage in a spiritual sharpening by joining us

in these exciting and interactive conferences by phone. If

you would like to attend but are unable to call, fill out

the form at this page:

http://marriagehealing.org/telecon.php and we will attempt

to match you with someone who has 3-way calling and can

bring you in at no cost to yourself.

Details for the weekly teleconferences can be found at

http://HisBodyAtWork.com To view any days details

simply hold your cursor over that days event.

Come and see what the Lord will do in YOUR life...

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