What a comfort it is to know that what Satan intends for evil, God intends for good, just as Joseph said in Genesis 50:20, when he said You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. And that’s confirmed in Romans 8:28, which says And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And even though it has been an experience I would have preferred to avoid, a potentially significant hindrance to the restoration of many marriages was exposed in our midst this week as the result of the awesome restored marriage testimony of one of our FAM Fellowship members. I was surprised to see so little response when the testimony was posted on the site and when I started contacting some of the members I usually hear from, I was totally unprepared to discover that they were unable to truly experience and share in the joy and excitement of such an awesome testimony. Fortunately Romans 8:28 was very reassuring and I kept reminding myself of John 31-32, which says To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So despite being caught off guard, there was no doubt that good would come of this and that knowing the truth would set anyone willing to recognize it free, and that Satan would no longer be able to use that stronghold as a powerful weapon to prevent the restoration of so many marriages. And there’s no better way to express the issues at hand than sharing what one of the fellowship members posted soon after we talked about how she felt, which ended up initiating more responses than any other post on the private website to date, so here it is:

This fellowship has recently provided us with much reason to praise and celebrate what the Lord is doing. Husbands are coming home, they’re renouncing their relationships with NCPs, they’re acknowledging God again. The Bible is very clear that we are to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. I confess, in these recent weeks of praise reports from several of the ladies, I have battled. I have all true joy and happiness for each of these women and yet…I cannot deny in my heart I complained to God. Just like the psalmist, I am crying out, “How long, O Lord, how long?” I write this because I thought perhaps I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. If I am, then I am glad, because I wouldn’t want others to be experiencing jealousy, envy or increased pain. I don’t want any of us who are still waiting for our own restorations to fall victim to the seeds of doubt. And that is the most important reason I am writing this post. While we wait our turn, it is more important than ever to draw close to God and to each other for comfort and support. We will not make this alone. We need to lean on each other, confessing our feelings so that we can pray for each other, so that the enemy does not keep us under a spirit of condemnation because we may struggle with our flesh on issues such as jealousy. As Linda reminded me today, God is no respector of persons. What He has done, He will do for all who believe and do not give up. Some of us have been waiting a long time and we feel weary. The miracles of others may lead us to wonder if there is something wrong with us, something wrong in our spiritual walk. We may begin to doubt God’s desire to work in our lives. This is what the enemy very clearly wants us to do. He wants to insinuate his lies between ourselves and God so that we become bitter and resentful of God and we “fall away from the faith”.

I just wanted to encourage anyone else who might be suffering…you’re not alone. There’s nothing wrong with you, God loves you and is faithful and your restoration is coming too. Don’t let the enemy steal those basic truths from you. I am praying for us all. With much love, (Name Omitted)

And if it weren’t for the courage and willingness of one woman to expose her own weakness by confessing it as she did, I have no doubt that a lot of people would have continued harboring bitterness, resentment and envy in their hearts, totally contrary to the instructions found in 1 Peter 2:1, which says Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. And then James 3:16 says For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. And James 3:14 says But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. So confessing that we harbor envy and bitterness in our hearts is very important, especially since Jeremiah 17:10 says “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

Deciding to share this on the public website was a difficult decision. But since it has prompted so much response and so many related posts revealing a lot of soul searching and admissions that so many of our members struggle with these issues, along with the recognition that they could indeed hinder the restoration of our marriages, there’s no doubt that many of the visitors to this site are probably dealing with the same issues. Fortunately, recognizing their existence is the first step to eradicating them and eliminating the potential they have to hinder the restoration of our marriages. There’s no doubt that Satan wanted this matter to interfere with the move of the Holy Spirit we’ve seen in our midst over the past couple of weeks, but he’s going to have a very rude awakening, because the exact opposite is true. We’ve turned the tables on him through the power of prayer and confession, and he no longer has that stronghold in the hearts of those who have recognized it and covered it by the blood and love of Jesus Christ! If we’re unable to rejoice when others experience marriage restoration before ours is manifested, we need to examine our hearts and get rid of anything displeasing to God, because it could be a hindrance to having our prayers answered or why God feels we’re not yet ready for the restoration of our marriages. As one of the members pointed out this morning, the Holy Spirit even had to remind her that she had forgotten to thank God for answering her prayers for marriage restoration, and the importance of how this revelation has defeated Satan’s intent is very well expressed in the following response to that post:

Thank you (Name Omitted), for your sincere reminder that we are to praise and thank him in ALL circumstances. The Lord really showed me today that beneath my sin of envy, was a sin of pride. I felt entitled, I felt I deserved my turn. The Lord was so sweet to bring this to my attention so that I could confess and repent. (Name Omitted), the good
news for all of us that experienced those pangs is that God is clearly working FOR us by working IN us to change our hearts. He wants to bring our husbands home and he knows what changes in us are needed before that happens. (Name Omitted) was right on the money when she spoke about her awareness that God still had work to do in her life. And she is a wonderful example to each of us that we need to continue submitting ourselves to God so that our hearts are made pure. There are some verses in Psalm 18 that speak so clearly to our current situation, “To the faithful, you show yourself faithful…to the pure, you show yourself pure…You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty. You O Lord keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.” We have an awesome promise here. I think God is using Rosalie’s testimony to bring to light some ugly stuff, including pride, so that he can remove it from our hearts. Once we are purified, he will show himself pure and faithful. He has to work in us to weed out the pride so that he can accomplish what his word says and give us our covenant promises. These sins of envy or strife, God will take away once we have confessed and repented which is exactly what we are doing-PRAISE GOD-he is overcoming us and removing the iniquity!!! Even now, as it seems that the devil has gained a foothold, in truth, HE HAS NOT!!. God is winnowing away the chaff and we are being made righteous by the circumcision of our hearts. With our repentance, God is free to turn that darkness into light and we are just all the closer to that day of restoration. Amen and amen to that!

So if this is a battle for anyone standing for marriage restoration, recognize it, confess it and repent, and then be blessed and encouraged, because you have just removed a hindrance and the restoration of your marriage is a big step closer!

Posted Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 11:38 am in Seeds Of Faith.