Tag: holyspirit

A violation of a trust is hazardous to any relationship, especially a marriage covenant relationship. Recently, we talked about sealing your marriage. If you don’t do so, it opens the door to violations of your wife’s trust on countless occasions, leaving a shell of a true marriage relationship as God sees it. These violations can continue to grow until the communication gap between spouses is so wide that there is little or no meaningful dialog except for addressing practical daily needs. When there is a lack of trust and communication breaks down, the true, intimate feelings, fears, and needs of either spouse can easily become fodder for the other spouse with his or her friends or a counselor of some sort. When this happens, it is more than likely that both of them will retreat even more to protect themselves from further wounds.

Men, your office demands that you guide your wife and family to true intimacy with the Lord, so that they can be prepared to glorify His name and do His work.  That ability only comes from intimacy with Him yourself. If you find intimacy difficult to attain, there is a good possibility that the violations of trust in your past have been carried into your marriage and will not allow you to trust anyone, even God. If that is the case, only the Lord can show you how deep the scars are. Only He can heal you so that you have the ability to really trust again and be trustworthy yourself.

While you’re dealing with the Lord about your own brokenness, a good place to start is to stop violating your wife’s trust at this very moment. Stop every negative thought about her. Stop jesting to others about even her smallest quirk. Stop communicating her failures with your buddies. Never again minimize her with your mouth or in your mind. Don’t criticize her so you can feel better about yourself. Determine that every communication that comes out of your mouth about her will be positive and uplifting. Learn to speak of her value to others as the Lord shows you how He sees her.  Make it your project in life to be trustworthy of her slightest wound or deepest fear, so she can learn to whole-heartedly trust you. Although it’s only a beginning of the kind of covenant God has established for the two of you, it’s a start. Watch the life that springs from the change in your perspective by the grace of God. Are you encouraged to try?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

Men, do you remember those cute little things that you loved when you first met your wife that now drive you nuts? Remember when you were so much in love that she could do nothing wrong? Remember when all your conversations about her were glittering with accolades and glowing with wondrous praises? Has anything changed?

If things have become complacent in your marriage, you now quietly put up with those quirks, and you have few glorious praises about your wife before others because the glow of her wealth has worn off, she is not wrong - you are. If you minimize her in any way because she has flaws in your eyes, you don’t understand your office as a husband.

Here is your privilege, men! You are the only one in this world chosen by God to observe the imperfections of your wife. You are the only one in this world whom He trusts to prayerfully hold those imperfections before Him, so that she might become more like Jesus. He trusts you to never share them with others. God observes your wife as righteous and on her way to holiness. He observes her through the blood of Jesus. He is focused more on who she will become rather than on what she is not.

Satan loves it when married couples pick each other apart by bringing up each other’s flaws. Unwise couples fall for his plan, and minimize the impact their marriage could have in the world. Wise men and women understand that the limitations they have the privilege of seeing in their spouse are wonderful opportunities to hold that person before the Lord for his or her best interest. It is one of the highest privileges given in marriage. How are you doing with that?

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Jim Corbett

As a husband, your position is one of service, never dominance. If you really understand Ephesians 5, you will see that you are to lay down your life for your wife in the same way that Jesus laid down His life for you. He gave Himself up for you. In God’s eyes, loving your wife as Christ loved the church is the only reason you are to leave your father and mother and be married.

With that in mind, what does your wife need?  I don’t mean what does she want, but what does she need to help her become everything she is supposed to be in Christ? What kind of fertile soil are you providing for her to prosper spiritually?

Your marriage relationship is to be an example of the relationship Christ has with the church. The world is supposed to see Jesus through how they perceive your interaction with your wife. How is that working for you? How do your actions toward your wife - caring for her spiritual life, placing her before yourself, communication to others about her - reflect the character of Jesus in front of others?

In general, men, the family is out of order in this world, mostly because men don’t comprehend the impact of their actions toward their wives. You as a man need to understand the spiritual implications of your husband to wife interactions. You need to know that interaction not only affects your whole family, it affects how those who are watching you see Jesus.  Your continual awareness of your wife’s needs is one of God’s ways of you fulfilling your offices of husband and father in His eyes. He considers it good stuff! Do you?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

This relationship with God is all about love. While involved in the tangles of the jungle of this world, we so often forget why we serve God. Tasks and demands in this life tend to become priorities. Obligations and responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood sometimes become overwhelming.  All of this can cloud the main reason we serve God. That cloud can make us ineffective in leading others to Him.

Let’s remember so that we can tell others. Jesus chose to die because of His great love. God made that covenant with us because of His great love.  We can love others because we have the confidence that we are loved with an unquenchable, reliable love. God’s love will never let us go or forsake us. He will always be there for us no matter how many times we violate His love or our commitment to Him.

If you lead those around you in love as a husband and father, you will see incredible results with your efforts to show them Jesus. If you love others even with a modicum of the love that has been given to you, many will be unable to resist the One Who has placed that love in you.  It costs you nothing; give it a shot!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

As the frontier developed, pioneers hired wagon masters, who hired scouts to guide them through unknown territory. These leaders were of utmost importance for the safety of the whole wagon train. Without them, the novice pioneer was doomed to succumb to the perils of the trip, and open prey to any hardship encountered. They relied upon the expertise of the wagon master for all details, and the scout for his knowledge of the uncharted terrain. These men had been there before and worked from personal experience, not from theory or guesswork. It was almost certain death to follow someone who didn’t know what he was doing.

God is calling His men to an intimate, holy relationship with Him in these closing hours of time. He is raising up those men who choose intimacy with Him to guide others through the peril that is on the horizon. He is calling forth mighty men of God to teach others to overcome the world and its ways, and re-establish His ordained offices of husband and father.

As foolish and hazardous as it would be for an inexperienced wagon master or scout to hire on as a leader of a wagon train, a man unfamiliar with an intimate relationship with his heavenly Father in the throne room of God is almost certain death to those who will need his guidance for the challenges ahead. As Jesus did nothing of Himself but only what His Father told Him to do, so must a man who guides others. He will not be able to give away what he himself does not own. He will not be able to take others to the safety of intimacy with the Lord if he has not often been there himself.

The world is changing at a remarkable rate. A new frontier, a spiritual walk in the kingdom of heaven with God in Christ is required to overcome the world. Throne room familiarity is becoming a necessity.   Intimacy with God will be the only sure way of navigating the rough terrain ahead. A deep, personal, Christ kind of love will be the only option in bringing reason to the darkness that mankind is about to fall into. How will you, as a father and husband, lead others through the mire and above the world if you haven’t been there yourself?

Today is the day to decide to take up a new address in the kingdom of heaven with God in Christ. It will require a decision to make intimacy your priority, not only to please your Father in heaven, but to gain what is necessary to teach others how to go there themselves. When are you going to go there so they can follow?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett