Silas
Beloved of All
Your heart for your neighbors and for those wounded by divorce has been heard, and your desire to see violence and confusion rebuked is right before the Lord.
Scripture is clear about marriage. From the beginning God made marriage to be a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. When Jesus was asked about divorce He pointed back to that beginning. He said Moses allowed a certificate of divorce only because hearts were hard, but it was not that way from the beginning, and apart from sexual immorality, to break that covenant and join to another is adultery. What was easy in that culture, a man simply writing out a paper and sending his wife away, was never God's ideal. God was asking, where is the proof that I have sent you away. It is not God who moves away from His people, we are the ones who move away from Him when we forsake His law.
Much of what you describe, the aggression, the sabotage, the sense that strife is spreading from house to house and even into friendships and work, comes from that hardness of heart. When everyone does what is right in his own eyes there is confusion. The Bible describes that time plainly and does not approve it. People live after the flesh and after the world, and then when calamity comes they ask why God allowed it, yet they have not been walking under His protection or seeking Him. Titus reminds us that we all once lived that way, foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating and being hated. Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh, which include envy, strife, drunkenness and such things that will not inherit the kingdom of God, with the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
You also named the spiritual reality behind the turmoil. Evil spirits do seek to torment and to bring pain, and Scripture shows they have a place of confinement and a coming judgment. They begged Jesus not to send them to that place before their time, and Revelation speaks of a time when their torment will be unleashed and men will even seek death and not find it. But the hope we have is that Jesus has been raised from the dead, because it was impossible for death to hold Him. When He ascended He led captivity captive and set captives free. He has authority over every demonic power, and He hears from heaven when His people turn to Him and cry out to Him.
God still calls to those who have turned away and says turn to Me. Even when a people have been treacherous and have followed the imagination of their evil hearts, He invites them to wash their hearts from wickedness that they may be saved, to cut away the heart that follows the flesh and be dedicated to the things of the Spirit. He promises that if we turn to Him and seek Him, He will hear from His holy place in heaven and answer and deliver.
So we pray with you in the name of Jesus Christ alone, through whom alone there is salvation.
We ask the Lord to rebuke the spirit of violence and domestic aggression in that home and in your neighborhood, to restrain sabotage and intimidation, and to protect those who are vulnerable. We ask Him to lift the bewildering confusion where false ties and false identities are claimed and where people meddle in another's house, and to bring clarity and truth and peace. We pray that those who are idle and used for ruin would be brought under Christ's authority and that their torment would be stopped.
We pray for every man and woman who has been through the tragedy of a broken marriage, and for those who are now in dating relationships as girlfriends and boyfriends. We do not ask God to bless any relationship outside His design, but we ask Him to draw each person to repentance and faith in Jesus, to wash them and forgive them, and to teach them to walk after righteousness and after the Spirit. For those who are married, we pray for hardness of heart to be softened and for reconciliation where it is possible and biblical. For those who are now unmarried, we pray for healing from disgrace and ruin, for grace to live with purity and self control, and to seek the Lord rather than drift away from what they have heard.
We pray for you, that you would not be drawn into fear or into returning evil for evil, but that you would be fed with the knowledge and understanding of God, that you would follow after righteousness and look to the Rock from which you were hewn. Do not be afraid of those who can harm the body, but fear the Lord and trust His eternal righteousness and salvation which endures from generation to generation. Take earnest heed to what you have heard in Scripture lest you drift away, and keep seeking the Lord daily, for He is able to heal and to keep and to guard your home in His peace.
May the Lord bring the fruit of His Spirit into that place where the works of the flesh have been so visible, and may He one day bring the unity He has promised where His people no longer walk after evil imaginations but walk together in His way.
Scripture is clear about marriage. From the beginning God made marriage to be a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman. When Jesus was asked about divorce He pointed back to that beginning. He said Moses allowed a certificate of divorce only because hearts were hard, but it was not that way from the beginning, and apart from sexual immorality, to break that covenant and join to another is adultery. What was easy in that culture, a man simply writing out a paper and sending his wife away, was never God's ideal. God was asking, where is the proof that I have sent you away. It is not God who moves away from His people, we are the ones who move away from Him when we forsake His law.
Much of what you describe, the aggression, the sabotage, the sense that strife is spreading from house to house and even into friendships and work, comes from that hardness of heart. When everyone does what is right in his own eyes there is confusion. The Bible describes that time plainly and does not approve it. People live after the flesh and after the world, and then when calamity comes they ask why God allowed it, yet they have not been walking under His protection or seeking Him. Titus reminds us that we all once lived that way, foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating and being hated. Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh, which include envy, strife, drunkenness and such things that will not inherit the kingdom of God, with the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
You also named the spiritual reality behind the turmoil. Evil spirits do seek to torment and to bring pain, and Scripture shows they have a place of confinement and a coming judgment. They begged Jesus not to send them to that place before their time, and Revelation speaks of a time when their torment will be unleashed and men will even seek death and not find it. But the hope we have is that Jesus has been raised from the dead, because it was impossible for death to hold Him. When He ascended He led captivity captive and set captives free. He has authority over every demonic power, and He hears from heaven when His people turn to Him and cry out to Him.
God still calls to those who have turned away and says turn to Me. Even when a people have been treacherous and have followed the imagination of their evil hearts, He invites them to wash their hearts from wickedness that they may be saved, to cut away the heart that follows the flesh and be dedicated to the things of the Spirit. He promises that if we turn to Him and seek Him, He will hear from His holy place in heaven and answer and deliver.
So we pray with you in the name of Jesus Christ alone, through whom alone there is salvation.
We ask the Lord to rebuke the spirit of violence and domestic aggression in that home and in your neighborhood, to restrain sabotage and intimidation, and to protect those who are vulnerable. We ask Him to lift the bewildering confusion where false ties and false identities are claimed and where people meddle in another's house, and to bring clarity and truth and peace. We pray that those who are idle and used for ruin would be brought under Christ's authority and that their torment would be stopped.
We pray for every man and woman who has been through the tragedy of a broken marriage, and for those who are now in dating relationships as girlfriends and boyfriends. We do not ask God to bless any relationship outside His design, but we ask Him to draw each person to repentance and faith in Jesus, to wash them and forgive them, and to teach them to walk after righteousness and after the Spirit. For those who are married, we pray for hardness of heart to be softened and for reconciliation where it is possible and biblical. For those who are now unmarried, we pray for healing from disgrace and ruin, for grace to live with purity and self control, and to seek the Lord rather than drift away from what they have heard.
We pray for you, that you would not be drawn into fear or into returning evil for evil, but that you would be fed with the knowledge and understanding of God, that you would follow after righteousness and look to the Rock from which you were hewn. Do not be afraid of those who can harm the body, but fear the Lord and trust His eternal righteousness and salvation which endures from generation to generation. Take earnest heed to what you have heard in Scripture lest you drift away, and keep seeking the Lord daily, for He is able to heal and to keep and to guard your home in His peace.
May the Lord bring the fruit of His Spirit into that place where the works of the flesh have been so visible, and may He one day bring the unity He has promised where His people no longer walk after evil imaginations but walk together in His way.
