- [Narrator] Intercessor and faith.
A man prepares for marriage.
The transition from single to married
is one of the most important and challenging
transitions that can take place in a person's life.
Welcome to a Grace Digital presentation.
In this video, I discuss what every man
has to know before he gets married.
Leadership intercession, your highest ministry.
His priestly ministry as an intercessor is closely connected
with the ministry of Jesus as a teacher.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that after his Ascension,
Jesus entered the inner sanctuary
behind the second curtain
to appear there as high priest on our behalf.
Wherefore, he is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him.
Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7 : 25.
When you represent Jesus to your wife and family,
you must learn to combine the rules
of priestly intercessor and teacher.
As a teacher, you will represent God to your family.
As an intercessor, you will represent
your family before God.
There is no higher office available to you.
Here are some ways to prepare for this.
For starters, one should carefully study
the biblical patterns of this type of intercession.
Trace the results it produced in each situation.
The following are some outstanding examples.
Abraham interceding on behalf of his nephew, Lot,
in the city of Sodom.
See Genesis 18 : 16 through 33.
Moses who interceded for Israel
after they had made a golden calf and worshiped it.
You can see this
in Exodus 32 : 1 through 14.
Moses and Aaron interceding on behalf of the Israelites,
dying of a plague.
You can see this in Numbers 16 : 41 through 50.
Consider the consequences of what God said
about Israel in Ezekiel 22 : 30.
And I sought for a man among them
that should make up the hedge
and stand in the gap before me for the land,
that I should not destroy it,
but I found none, NKJV.
Wherever God places you,
you can learn to be a man standing in the gap for others.
You will find it encouraging too
to remember the priestly blessing
that Aaron and his sons were instructed to pronounce
on their fellow Israelites.
See Numbers 6 : 24 through 27.
When you become a priest over your family,
you have a pattern of blessing them
which will be one of your greatest privileges.
The second way to prepare for the role
of priestly intercessor is to cultivate
a regular personal life of prayer,
if you have not already done so.
Be systematic, dedicate your best time to it.
Ask God to place in your heart,
the persons for whom he wants you to intercede.
These may be members of your family or church,
colleagues or other employees.
You should also include God's ministering servants
who have helped you and are likewise helping others.
It is often convenient to draw up a list of the people
for whom you pray regularly.
Take personal responsibility before God for them.
Thirdly, you regularly participate
in a kind of prayer meeting.
Learning to pray with others will help you overcome
your self-consciousness and will better prepare you to pray
with your wife and family in due course.
Prayer should become as natural a part of your family life
as eating or playing.
There's one important, extra benefit resulting from learning
the ministry of priestly intercession.
It will greatly help you in other roles
in which you seek to represent Jesus.
Indeed, your success in the service of prayer
is likely to determine the extent of your success
in these other areas.
Your role in practical terms.
The best summary of your responsibilities
as a representative of Jesus in your house
is contained in the concept, leadership.
What does this say specifically about your role?
Let me answer another question.
What is the function of a physical head
in relation to the rest of the body?
It takes three forms.
Receiving input from every area of the body,
making decisions, giving direction.
Every part of the body has the right
to communicate with the head
but the head is responsible for absorbing the information
it receives and then taking appropriate action.
Apply this simple illustration to the role you will fill
as head of your house.
Firstly, we must be open to the communication
of every member of the family,
to every need, every injury, every pressure,
every creative or constructive idea.
Secondly, you need to be able to process
all this information and decide what action
the whole family should take.
Although you get suggestions from each member,
your decision must be best for the family as a whole.
Third, having made your decision,
you must initiate the action by the members of the family
required to carry it out.
What does that require of you?
First, sensitivity and the ability to register the needs
and feelings of others,
to anticipate problems and dangers,
to accept and implement constructive ideas.
Secondly, wisdom requires making decisions
that affect not only one's own life,
but also that of others.
Thirdly, it requires strength of character and determination
to ensure that your decisions are implemented
and where necessary, to involve the cooperation of others.
In 1 Timothy 3 : 4 and 5,
Paul compares the responsibility of a church elder
to that have a husband and a father in his house.
One that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity.
For if a man know not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care of the church of God?
He must run on his own family well
and ensure that his children obey him.
And he must do so in a way that deserves all respect.
If someone does not know how to manage his own family,
how can he take care of God's church?
The meaning of the verb translated to manage,
is to stand at the head of or in front of.
This is the position of the husband and father.
He goes before his family, he leads the way.
When his family is threatened by evil or danger,
he also stands before them
and stands between them and what threatens them.
All this can be summed up in one crucial word, leadership.
In almost all areas of today's society,
effective leadership is lacking.
There are also evil forces, natural and supernatural,
that resist such guidance and try to undermine it
wherever it may be arise.
An important consequence was the terrible
disintegration of family life.
God's plan for marriage and the home
depends on the restoration
of the kind of leadership the Bible depicts.
If you decide to be that kind of leader in your house,
you must arm yourself beforehand to face resistance.
You will be swimming against the currents
of contemporary culture.
But that is the difference between a live fish
and a dead fish.
A living fish can swim against the current,
a dead fish can only swim with it.
Two foundations, faithfulness and responsibility.
There are two foundations on which this kind of leadership
must be based, faithfulness and responsibility.
Usually, these are acquired in seemingly
modest or unimportant functions.
Once acquired, they can form the basis for success
in any field of life.
Without them, there is no real success.
Jesus said, he that is faithful in that which is least
is faithful also in much.
And he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.
Luke 16 : 10, NASB.
Solomon's observations on faithfulness are illuminating.
In Proverbs 28 : 20 he says,
a faithful man will abound with blessings, NKJV.
While in Proverbs 20 : 6, he asks
most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness
but a faithful man, who can find? NKJV.
In the administration of his own great kingdom,
Solomon acknowledged his need of faithful men.
Yet even with all the best men of Israel at his disposal,
he had to search for one who fulfilled this qualification.
Cultivating the characteristics.
The twin characteristics of faithfulness and responsibility
can be cultivated in almost any setting.
Joseph cultivated them first
in Potiphar's house, then in prison.
The result was a promotion,
that will almost always be the case.
Steps to take.
First of all, commit yourself unconditionally to God.
Then you can rely on him to guide you along the paths
that fulfill his special plan for your life.
Proverbs 3 : 6 lets us know,
in all your ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct your paths, NKJV.
Secondly, consider every situation you find yourself in
to be specifically arranged by God to train you
and develop an aspect of your character or personality.
You may find yourself in some unexpected
or uncomfortable situations but do not complain.
Remember Joseph in the prison.
Third, make the Bible your number one priority for study.
Never let anything else take precedence over it.
Try to interpret every phase of your experience
in the light of the Bible.
You will be amazed at how much light it offers.
In the area of education,
I recommend that you seek to relate all your studies
to the course of life you believe God has appointed for you.
Concerning this kind of life,
the world's wisest man commented;
of making many books, there is no end
and much study wearies the body.
Ecclesiastes 12 : 12.
Your spiritual development should normally find
its full expression in the ordered life of fellowship,
provided by a local church.
Here under proper pastoral guidance,
you will experience ongoing development
in three related areas.
Your understanding of God's word,
your training for the service of God
and the refinement and strengthening
of your Christian character.
In the same process that makes one a man of God,
that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3 : 17 will also prepare you
for the headship of your home.