As I glanced in my rearview mirror,
I could see the huge red fire truck
bearing down on me... lights flashing
aggressively.
Hastily, I made it out of the way just
in time.
But then something odd struck me... the
sirens were not blaring. There wasn't
an emergency. What was going on?
Then I looked closely. And what I saw?
A lovely young girl with hair like
burnished gold... maybe 19, 21, dressed
in sparkling white bridal garment... along
with a sharply dressed, smiling young man.
Holding hands together and standing in
the back of the open-air truck they were
waving and smiling at the crowd.
Whoa! This young couple newly married just
hired a fire truck for the evening drive
around town!
I joined the crowd and waved back. The
spectacle just brightened the whole
place and drew smiles of joy from the
face of everyone.
At that moment it dawned on me what a
precious joyful thing a successful dating
could lead to...
This was 6:15pm Thursday evening.
Another Time, Another Place
Different set of people.
By 7 am Sunday morning in church I was
jolted back to hard cold reality... like
someone poured a bucket of ice-cold water
on me.
It happened when I innocently asked a
brother how his family was doing ...
"She's gone... walked out on me
with the kids," came the sad reply.
"Y...you m..mean..." I stammered trying
to contain my shock. Not these ones.
They always seemed so happy... always
smiling.
"She just said she felt like she
was in prison or something. Packed up
with our 2 kids and left for Arizona,"
he said sighing wearily.
Then a thought struck me.
"I'm so sorry to hear that." I began.
"That's okay, thanks," he said.
"Excuse me for asking this...is there
any pattern like this in your family...
or hers?"
"Not mine," he said gently but firmly,
"in her family no one stays married for
long."
Hmmm.
Before that week was over I had heard
of 5 more similar cases.
What could be going wrong?
Shocking Revelations
In our ministry years back we did an
in-depth spiritual research into
disintegrating relationships and up
came certain shocking revelations.
Some of them were not pretty.
In fact, the problem starts with one of the
oldest and most successful strategies
in the book - confusion of tongues.
For students of the Bible, this age-old
weapon was first used by God Himself against
the builders of the tower of babel in the
book of Genesis 11.
It is such an effective weapon that
it can create suspicion, misunderstanding
and general confusion in a relationship...
in no time at all.
The man and woman begin to disagree
on practically everything... no one
is listening to the other and before
long communication breaks down... then
terrible things begin to happen from there.
So we leant to pray the prayer of the
psalmist, "O Lord, divide the tongues
of all those targeting my marriage for
destruction." - see Ps 55:9.
In some relationships, We also uncovered a
pattern of:
* breakup or divorce either in the
man's family or on the woman's
side or both.
* marital problems transferred from
one generation to another...
* hidden spiritual "marriages" in place.
* invisible marks of hatred placed
on the man or woman. This makes
one repulsive to the other and vice
versa - after only a few years of marriage.
* warning signals ignored or simply not
understood. Sometimes these warnings
came through dreams.
etc.
To give you an example, once we found a
man who was deeply in love with his date...
and they got married - for 6 months.
Then all of a sudden he couldn't stand the
sight of her. No one could think of
anything wrong that she had done.
Eventually he walked out on her.
She went for counselling... no solution.
Her friends took her to all kinds of
"prophets." She went to see 5 different
therapists, 2 psychics and even a
hypnotist.
Nothing worked.
She went into prayer asking God for
a more compatible person to date.
No response.
As she put it she had desperately prayed
to God to send her that special someone
with whom she could glorify and give Him
praise... no answer.
In fact all she seemed to be getting turned
out to be nothing but "wolves in sheep's
clothing."
She gave up... not knowing how to navigate
the tricky minefield of finding a sincere,
godfearing man to share her love with.
Then the Lord had mercy on her.
One day, a friend at work invited her to
a Friday night prayer meeting.
It was an anointed session... and miracles
were happening.
During the prayers one sister noticed an
invisible mark on her forehead... a tiny
star-shaped symbol that was not visible
to the naked eye.
She stopped the prayers and raised this
singular prayer point just for her:
"Blood of Jesus, wipe off all handwriting
of hatred and rejection from my life in
the name of Jesus."
They prayed it 3 hot times, praised the
LORD for the answer and moved right on
to the next prayer point.
Result?
That same weekend the husband called for the
very first time since the breakup.
12 more sessions of anointed prayers
(with fasting) followed ...and hubby
came home.
Do you happen to know
anyone whose relationship is not all
it could be, maybe a friend or
even a relative?
* Or the marriage is on the verge of hitting
the rocks
* Or has broken down already
* Or tell-tale signs of wear and tear are
beginning to show
* Or someone believing the LORD
for a godly spouse
* Or any couple just trying to safeguard their
marriage
* Or a close friend just fed up with the boredom
and loneliness of the single life?
Do them a favor... learn to pray for them. I mean
the type of prayer that works.
Because there are prayers that work like little hinges
that move big doors.
These are prayers of spiritual:
* housecleaning
* restoration
* prevention
And they help you reap the benefits of a successful
dating for a long time to come...to the fullest.
Just as God has planned it.
Don't settle for less!
Elisha Goodman is an online prayer coach and author of five books, including his free book: Passion Prayer of Jesus the Christ. His f.ree online prayer coaching ministry http://www.firesprings.com/ has helped thousand all over the world to grow spiritually as well as in the areas of health, wealth and relationships. Thousands participated in his recent 21-day Prayer Marathon that witnessed the blossoming of new relatioships, manifestation of new cars, houses, money, and emotional and physical healing. For more on his coaching sessions here: http://www.firesprings.com/dnabook.htm
