Thank you Lord Jesus. Lord I do bless you here. Lord we bless you Lord that you do have the final say.
Lord I thank you that you alone Lord are the author and the perfecter of our faith.
Lord I thank you for every plan and every kingdom destiny Lord that you have given each of your people.
Lord we want to bless you Lord that your heart is for your people.
Lord your love is for us. Great is that love. Lord we thank you for that love here.
Lord we thank you for your presence. Thank you Lord for your word.
Lord anoint every word here Lord. I'm asking by your spirit you would impart to each of us here Lord.
You would minister and impart spirit to spirit. Words of life.
Lord you are the giver of every good thing. You are the giver of life Lord.
I ask that by your spirit life be released Lord to every weary soul Lord that they may be encouraged.
Lord you would build up that which is weak. Strengthen that which is weary.
Lord we bless you that your word is not just a dead letter. It's not a dead letter at all.
Lord it's words of spirit and life. Lord your word is living.
Lord it is a living word. Father I ask for that living word to go forth this morning to each of us Lord.
Do what only you can do through the power of your word. I ask you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Morning church. Is there anyone new here this morning for the first time?
There was one person. Welcome. Thank God bless you.
I want to read from Nehemiah this morning to begin with.
So if you turn to Nehemiah chapter 4. I want to minister a word of exhortation.
Exhortation really is very closely related to encouragement.
Encouragement is something you need when you're discouraged.
But also encouragement comes to stir us up when we're lazy.
So it has sort of two parts but I certainly want to encourage for those that are discouraged.
I particularly want to minister to men and women but in the sense of the marriage.
Now if you're not married, you're yet to be married, you can still relate and you can still glean from everything that I want to share here this morning.
So I'm going to read from verse 1 to 18, Nehemiah chapter 4.
But it so happened when Sam Ballot, that's a bad guy, heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews.
And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaritans said, what are these feeble Jews doing?
Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day?
Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, stones that are burned?
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, whatever they build, even if a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.
Hear O God, for we are despised, turn their approach on their own heads and give them as plunder to the land of captivity.
Do not cover their iniquity, do not let their sin be blotted out from before you, for they have provoked you to anger before the builders.
So we built the wall and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height for the people who had a mind to work.
Now it happened when Sam Ballot, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, they're all bad people, the enemy,
heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed that they became very angry and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion.
Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.
Then Judah said, the strength of the labourers is failing and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.
And our adversaries said, they will neither know nor see anything till we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease.
So it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came that they told us ten times, from whatever place you turn they will be upon us.
Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall at the openings and I set the people according to their families with their swords, their spears and their bows.
And I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them, remember the Lord great and awesome and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.
And it happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had brought their plot to nothing that all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work.
So it was from that time on that half of my servants worked at construction while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows and wore armour.
And the leaders were behind all the house of Judah.
Those who built on the wall and those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction and with the other hand a weapon.
Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built and the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me.
Amen.
So to give you a little bit of context, this is, if you don't know much about Nehemiah, what I'm reading about is a group of people, the Jewish people coming back to the land to rebuild this wall that surrounded Jerusalem.
That wall was there for protection, like a fortress around the cities that dwelled inside.
And these people had been exiled, they've come back and they have begun to rebuild this wall.
And this book, Nehemiah, it's a book about building.
You see that there with them building with one hand and in the other hand them having a weapon.
So building and battle go hand in hand.
What I want to speak about today is particularly in the life of Christian men, the very headship of the Christian man of the home is sometimes little understood.
But it's so important because that's the very thing that the enemy wants to pull down.
He wants to take the place of the man as head and the authority that that carries and remove it.
Because if he can do that, the enemy can come in and remove the authority or the head of the home, being the male, then that brings confusion, it brings disorder, it brings a lack of unity.
And the enemy can have his way, in a sense.
So it's so important that male headship is upheld and we get an understanding of it and actually honour that position.
It doesn't mean that we all as men do it well because God's growing us in each of those areas.
But if you look in chapter 3, I just read from chapter 4 in the Amai, if you look in chapter 3, now chapter 3, if you just glean, just speed read it, you see a lot of, it seems like a lot of unnecessary details.
You see a lot of names, most of which I cannot pronounce.
It talks about just all these little repairs, the place in the front of tombs, man-made pools.
It talks about hanging doors.
It talks about other sections. It just talks about all these things that really seem irrelevant to us as Christians.
But there's nothing irrelevant in the Word of God.
Because chapter 3 really builds a contrast for chapter 4. Because whilst in chapter 3 the men were able to build and do minor works,
it wasn't until the men began to build the wall for protection that the enemy opposed them.
And of course, protection is highly related to authority.
So the enemy here, which represents Sam Bala, the Ammonites and so forth, and the Arabs and the Ashdodites, there was no problem on their part.
We have a spiritual enemy, they had a physical enemy.
There was no problem there for them to do all these little things.
But as soon as it came to protecting and building the wall, the enemy had a problem with that.
And you see in verse 6 of chapter 4 it says,
So we built the wall and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height for the people who had a mind to work.
But you see in verse 1, the enemy there, it was mentioned, was one, Sam Bala.
It talks about the rebuilding of the wall that was furious and very indignant.
Verse 6 talks about, again, building the wall, there's progress being made up to half its height for the people who had a mind to work.
Then in verse 7, now there's an escalation. The opposition intensifies.
It says, now it happened when Sam Bala, and now it adds into bar, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of the Jerusalem were being restored,
and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry.
So there was a level of opposition that wasn't met when they were just doing general duties, so to speak.
It wasn't until protection came that that really invoked the enemy and made them angry.
And so the enemy has a plot and a scheme, many of them.
One of them is to pull the male out of leading, out of that place of head of the family home.
And like I said, if he can do that, he takes away the protection.
Because remember I said, protection is highly related to authority, and where there's no headship, there's no authority.
So these enemy had a plot to destroy these people and to discourage them.
And many men today are discouraged for multiple reasons. They're discouraged and they just can't get to where God wants them to be,
because they're discouraged. And that's one of the tactics, one of the tools of the enemy, to discourage men so that they can't be all that God wants them to be.
They can't walk into their destiny because of discouragement. This is what these people faced.
They faced discouragement. Nehemiah was the leader. He had to stir them up.
He encouraged them in verse 13 because of that very fact. He said, I position men behind the lower parts of the wall.
And then he says, do not be afraid of them in verse 14.
Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.
So there's an encouragement that came to these men just to keep building, because like I said, building and battle go hand in hand.
And so I want to encourage the men here today, and as I go, I want to explain more about that.
Keep going. Men. Women, you have a part to play in this too.
So I'm not just talking about men here today. The enemy wants to destroy authority.
And like I said, it's headship that brings authority.
You see, the first sin on earth that was actually written in the Bible, not the first sin committed, that was in heaven,
but the first one on earth, the first sin committed, I'll say it again, the first sin written in the Bible was Eve.
It was in disobedience. But the first sin committed on earth was actually on the part of Adam.
It was passivity because he allowed Eve to eat the apple.
That very thing on Adam's part, the apathy and the passivity of him allowing Eve to do what she wanted,
although it was disobedience, we have all suffered today.
If you turn to Genesis chapter 3, verse 9, it actually says, and this is God speaking,
it says, the Lord called to Adam and said to him, where are you?
This is after everything had gone down.
So Adam, he's gone somewhere and God's not saying where are you in the physical sense.
He's saying, where are you as I defined you, as the male, as the head, as the leader over Eve.
Where are you?
Verse 17, God says to Adam, because you have hated the voice of your wife,
and you have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat, so forth.
So there you see that God actually blames, he puts the onus on Adam.
He finds him responsible for what Eve had done.
And so, he didn't do anything.
Adam didn't do anything physically, it's what he didn't do, he lost his voice.
And so the enemy today wants to stop men using their voice, he wants to stop men using their authority,
he wants to stop them being the head and the man that he's called them to be.
And so if he can do that, then everything hinges on that, everything in the family line is insecure,
and it crumbles in a sense.
And you see the result of this, this is in verse 16 of chapter 3 of Genesis.
Because of the curse that Adam and Eve brought upon themselves through this apple,
God says to Eve, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception.
In pain you shall bring forth children, and then he says, your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.
That sounds like a good thing, doesn't it?
Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.
In other words, he's saying, I'm going to amplify your desire to be head over the home,
to take the man's role illegitimately.
He's saying, your desire is going to be to control your husband.
Do you see that today in the world, or more importantly, do you see it today in the church?
I'm asking a question, I'm not sure if that's true or if you've seen it.
I know it's true, but this is what we want to ward against,
and this is what I want to bring to your attention.
The New Living Translation says, for that verse I read out,
then he said to the woman, I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth and you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.
So there's going to be, because of the curse, because of the fall,
we're no longer under the curse because of what Jesus has done,
but there's a desire there for women, because women still have pain, as far as I'm aware, during birth.
So there's a desire there still that women to control
and to actually have a desire there to lead the family.
And so there's two things in operations.
There's the woman's desire, if the man's not taking up the slack,
there's the desire for the woman to lead.
On the man's part, he sees the woman leading, so he says,
well, she's doing a good job, why should I bother?
So there's two aspects involved, and because men and women, husband and wife, you are one,
you've got to work as a team, and one affects the other.
You're in a perfect union, God's brought you together as one.
And so it's really important that what I'm sharing with you today, that you actually heed,
because as I said at the beginning, the woman, the wife, you have a major part to play in this as well.
It's not just the man's responsibility.
So men, don't allow yourself to be manipulated, don't allow yourself to be controlled.
Proverbs 31 verse 3 says, do not give your strength to women.
So men, you have the precious privilege and the responsibility to lead the home,
to lead your wife, to lead your children, if you've got children.
That's a privilege you have, and the enemy wants to take that away.
It says, well, your wife's doing a good job, she's more spiritual than you, just let her do it.
And so I want to raise this today, I want to encourage the men and the women that this is not so,
this is not biblical, and so I'm asking, and what I'm doing is exhorting you for the men to actually raise up
in the fullness of the stature of what God has created you to be in Him,
that you actually take your rightful place as head of the home, but also head in the church.
I know Jesus Christ is the head of the church, but what I'm saying is you take the leadership responsibility
serious as a male, because you've got that privilege to do so.
And in chapter 5 of Ephesians, it says, in verse 22 to 23,
Wives submit to your own husbands to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife,
as also Christ is head of the church, and He is the Saviour of the body.
So men, you have the responsibility in the church.
When I see women leading, pastoring as the head, the church,
that is completely unscriptural and unbiblical, and I think that it's so dangerous and it's deception.
It's a complete deception.
And you allow, when a woman leads the church, you allow all sorts of Satan's tactics and snares to come in.
And he doesn't have to try hard, because that covering, that protection is removed,
because of the very fact that a woman's in that position.
And it's not common, but there are churches where women lead, and it's not a healthy church, and it brings confusion.
Men, you as the head, as I just read out, Ephesians 5, you are the head.
It's your place. You've been called to rule and reign in the family home.
You've been called to rule and reign in the church body.
That is a privilege you have. You've been called to be the one that protects,
that you actually walk in your authority that God has given you.
And by doing that, when you're under authority, you have authority.
And when you have authority, you know you can protect.
You know you can actually protect the family.
You can be effective in the church because of your authority.
But it's very important that, men, you don't actually let your past define who you are.
You actually don't let your past define where God wants you to be.
Because it's very easily, because of the past, that we can fall into things like self-pity.
We can fall into the place of discouragement where we're just looking at the past and the failures, perhaps,
the things that could have been, should have been.
But that's all in the past. God wants you to move on.
He wants you to lift you up and out of that pit so that you can get to where God wants you to be.
Because the church needs the people, but the church particularly needs the man.
The church needs the man to be leading.
The church needs the man to be leading the ministries.
I thank God that we do have women that can lead ministries.
But it's the men. It's the men who have got the authority.
It's men who have got the dominion to exercise, the spiritual authority.
Men, it's you who, in the family home, it's you by the Word of God that is going to have wisdom.
It's the man of the home. It doesn't mean that the woman or the wife's opinion is not regarded.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying that, men, we need godly counsel.
We need godly wisdom to lead family homes. It only comes through the Word of God.
As you know, Ash is pregnant and we're at a stage in her pregnancy where we have to consider the injections.
The whooping cough and this and that and all these things.
So I'm just praying, God, what do I do?
Show me what to do. What's your answer, Lord? What's your solution?
Where do I go with this? I know nothing about that stuff.
So I'm in a place where we've got to make decisions and I need God's wisdom in that.
And some of you men have got decisions.
You've had decisions to make. You might have decisions, important ones to make in the future.
But as the man, you're going to be the one responsible to make those decisions and not lean on your wife.
Yes, you can listen to your wife, but ultimately it comes down to you.
Because when Abraham listened to Sarah, they created an Ishmael.
He was right to listen to her the second time when he said, get rid of her.
How you got that is.
So, man, it's very important that we listen sometimes to our wives.
And with being the man, the head of the home comes responsibility.
Lot led his family into Sodom.
It was very difficult to get them back out.
So the responsibility that we have and the wisdom that we need in making decisions for the family,
where the family is concerned, is very important.
That's why we need the counsel and the word of God to be in our midst.
It's important also as a man to be directed, if you're going to be the head of the home,
to be instructed by the Holy Spirit.
Because in 1 Corinthians, I'll read it out, in 11 verse 3 it says,
I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ.
The head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God.
So I just want to say the first bit, I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ.
So, man, we're going to be people who are led by the Spirit.
We are instructed, God's authority flows downwards.
It goes from God the Father, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, then to the man.
So when we are led, we can be in a right place of order when men are led by the Spirit of God.
And it's so important in today's society, and I'm talking about the church.
Men, don't be intimidated by your wives.
There are many, many godly wives, and even single women in this church, very, very godly.
And it would be very easy just to raise up a hand.
I could pull from many, many women to lead ministries.
Obviously, I'm not going to do that because it's completely unscriptural.
But, we don't blame the women that they're spiritual, sometimes more spiritual than the men.
But, we don't want to be intimidated by the women.
We praise God for the women. We praise God that they are spiritual.
But men, don't be intimidated and let them do everything spiritually.
Don't be intimidated by their prayers and let them lead every prayer.
Be willing to fail because if you don't begin in areas of ministry, in areas of just praying,
then you're never going to get to where God wants you to be.
And the woman, the wife will keep taking the place of the man if you allow it.
So, it's really important that men we actually love on our wives,
but we don't actually continue to lean on them.
We love them, but we don't lean on them.
In 1 Peter 3.7 it says, husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding.
That's talking to the wives, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel
and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered.
So, we are to dwell with the wife with understanding.
We're to love our wives.
And the key, I believe, one of the major keys for seeing a man successful,
seeing a man move into everything that his role entails,
everything that his kingdom destiny entails revolves around a woman.
Wives, you are the key, no pressure,
you are the key to a lot of the husband's success.
Ephesians 4, I read it earlier, 22, says,
wives submit to your husbands, own husbands, to the Lord,
for the husband is head of the wife.
Submission comes first, then the man can be the head.
Submission must come first, and then the husband can be the head.
It's almost impossible for a man to be head over an unsubmitted wife.
So, the woman has a role to play so that the man can be effective
and it all comes down to being submitted and honoring the husband.
Because in that place there is where he can fully grow into all that he's called to be.
So, wives, it's really important that you encourage the men,
the husbands and the men in general.
It's very important that they are encouraged.
There was a man here a number of years ago and he was only visiting,
but I had the opportunity to talk to him and I could see he wanted,
I can't remember the exact details, all I know is when I spoke to him,
he was quite teary and what I picked up was that he was in a place
where his wife was really the head of the home
and I could just sense that he was in a place where she dictated to him
and he felt like a little weasel, do you know what I mean, under her control.
And it's a very hard situation to be in and maybe you can be in that place today
where you feel like, I'm in this place and I don't know how to get out of it.
Maybe you've created such a spiritual atmosphere where the wife is the lead and the head,
which is not healthy.
What do you do in that place where you may feel like,
man I'm so discouraged, my wife is in this ministry and she's like a prayer warrior
and she reads for four hours a day and she knows all the scriptures
and who am I?
Well God's given you the authority to raise up, be raised up and be the spiritual head.
It doesn't mean you have to know everything.
It doesn't mean that you have to serve in every ministry,
but you men have this wonderful opportunity by the grace of God
to actually be that man, to be the person that God's called you to be.
Because it's really important that we don't remain as men in that place where we're discouraged,
like Nehemiah, like the people in Nehemiah's day, they were discouraged
and it took Nehemiah to encourage them.
And so wives, I want to encourage you to encourage your husbands.
Seek counsel from them.
If they make a wrong decision, let them make a wrong decision.
You don't always have to be right.
The man is the head, but the head in the physical sits on the neck.
You know who the neck is? It's the wife.
So often we walk with our head forward, but often we need to turn our head.
So you wives are so important in the ministry, I like to call, of the marriage,
of the covenant relationship.
You are so important and you have such a large role to play
and a responsibility in the man, in the husband's life.
And I want that to be an encouragement for you because husband and wife have got yours won.
So you need to help one another so that you are brought into all that
God's kingdom destiny has for you.
Push, I'm speaking to wives now, push your husbands forward.
Push them forward, encourage them.
Tell them that they can do something rather than they can't.
You know what, such and such, you'd be great at this ministry.
Husband, why don't you pray about this?
He may not be as much of a prayer warrior as you, but just tell him he is.
Because you are speaking in faith.
You are declaring over him what he is going to be.
Push him forward. Tell him what a blessing he is.
Because when I saw that man that I spoke about, he received nothing.
Like I said, he felt like a little worm.
And he was choking up.
And God actually gave me a word a few days after and it was in this book of Nehemiah.
So that's why I've used the book of Nehemiah because I know the effect that
when the protection, when the authority has been removed,
where the head of the home has been taken away from the husband and it's been given to the wife,
that that protection that goes around the family spiritually is broken
and that authority is gone and the enemy has a right to come in and plunder.
And I want to just finish in Joel chapter 3.
And this is a word I just want to declare.
It's in verse 9.
Proclaim this among the nations.
Prepare for war. Wake up the mighty men.
Let all the men of war draw near.
Let them come up.
Let your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weak say, I am strong. Amen.
So some of you women, you're here today, your husbands are not.
And you're in a place where you so desire for your husband to be beside you.
And your heart yearns for that.
So let the weak say, I am strong.
Believe that God is going to bring your husband in.
Believe that God is going to have him sit next to you.
That he's going to be in this place, in the house of God with you,
to worship the living God with you, beside you.
Some of you women may feel like you're in a place of dissatisfaction,
where you're forced in essence to take up the slack.
You're forced in essence to take the lead because the husband's not doing it.
Keep praying women.
Keep praying for your husbands because God is so faithful because that is his heart.
His heart is for the men of the home to take their position as the spiritual head.
Keep praying.
You men, you may feel like you're that little worm,
that your wife is more spiritual than you.
Maybe that's just a whisper and a lie that the enemy has sown into your heart.
You too, let the weak say, I am strong.
It's time, and women, it's time for each of us to rise up
and to take back what the enemy has taken from us.
For men to actually rise to that place.
Women, you are pushing behind.
You're pushing them up.
You're encouraging them to be in that place, saying you can do it.
Because when they're in the right place,
then the whole marriage and the whole family is in the right place,
which means the whole church is in the right place.
It all begins in the home.
Everything you see in the church, it begins in the home.
It begins with the men.
It begins with the men exercising their authority.
It begins with the men being the priest, being the prophet, being the provider.
Most of you are providers, thank God for that.
But to actually take hold of that kingdom authority that God's given you as the head.
He's given it to the male.
So men, this is an exhortation for you to rise up and take your position.
Just as those men did in Nehemiah.
Nehemiah called them to fight for their families.
He exhorted them to fight for the little ones and those that are around them.
So I'm going to just pray to close.
Lord, I just want to thank you for the men of this house.
Lord, I thank you, Lord, that they are godly men.
Lord, I thank you that you are doing a work in each of us.
Lord, you are a supernatural God.
Lord, I want to just bless you that you've got a great plan and destiny for every man.
And Lord, you want to take us onwards and upwards.
Lord, you want to take us from glory to glory.
And Lord, you want to bring back into the home that authority.
You want men to take their rightful place at the head.
So Father God, I'm asking right now, Lord, you would stir each of us.
You would stir, Lord, every man.
Lord, you would bring him into that place, Lord, where he is encouraged once again.
Lord, I'm asking, Lord, just as you encourage David.
Lord, I'm asking you would encourage the men.
Father God, where the women are, Lord, discouraged, dissatisfied with what they see.
Father God, I'm asking right now, Lord, that you would lift their eyes to heaven.
Lord, that you are the God of the impossible.
Lord, that all things are possible for you.
Lord, that you are able to do great and mighty things in the men and the women of this church.
Father, I just declare, Lord, that over the men in this home, in this sanctuary, Lord, in this church,
Lord, that the men shall be mighty men of valor.
Father God, I just declare right now over every man and woman in this church,
Lord, that the weak say, I am strong.
Lord, that the weak, Lord, shall be raised up by your grace.
Father God, I'm asking, Lord, in this season, Lord, that you would empower the men.
Father God, you would gift the men with every spiritual gift they need.
Lord, you would give them the grace they need, Lord, afresh to be the husband, to be the family man.
Lord, to be, Lord, the very father of the families.
Lord, I'm asking, Lord, that you would lift up every man.
Lord, you would release them, Lord, into their destiny.
Lord, you would remove every burden.
Father God, you would remove every insecurity.
Father God, I'm asking, Lord, that you would strengthen the man.
Lord, strengthen those hands that hang low in those feeble knees.
Father God, I lift up the women and the wives of this church.
Lord, I bless you for them.
Lord, I thank you for every gift that you've given them.
And Lord, I thank you, Lord, that they are so important, that they are the key.
Lord, they are a precious key in the family unit.
And Father God, I'm asking you would bless the women this day.
Lord, raise them up, strengthen to their hands, their feeble knees.
Father God, I'm asking, Lord, for the grace over their lives.
Lord, to be the wife that you've called them to be, according to your Word.
Lord, I'm asking, Lord, in marriages today, God, that they would be strengthened.
Lord, there would be a greater unity.
Lord, that there would be a kingdom purpose put before them.
Lord, in the Spirit you would make known to each of them families.
Lord, each of those family units.
Lord, we trust you.
Lord, we declare you are good.
And Father, I declare this day, Lord, that men shall rise up and take their rightful place in the home and in the church.
That men shall be raised up.
Kingdom men, for a kingdom destiny and a kingdom purpose.
Father God, I'm asking right now you would cut off, Lord, everything that opposes the men.
Father God, you would come and you would destroy every weapon of discouragement.
Lord, you would remove, Lord, every weapon of ungodly control.
Father God, I'm asking right now, Lord, you would bring your order, godly order, into every marriage in this church.
Lord, and those that are connected to this church.
Father God, I'm asking, Lord, you would breathe fresh life into every marriage today.
Lord, I'm asking for marriages, Lord, to be renewed.
I'm asking for marriages to be healed.
Lord, I'm asking, Lord, for the very finger of God, your finger, the power of your Holy Spirit, to touch every marriage concerned.
Lord, and raise it to new life, Lord, from the ashes of defeat.
Lord, build on those ruins.
Lord, I thank you that there's nothing impossible for you.
Lord, all things are possible for you.
We want to bless you here in this house.
Lord, you've given us everything.
Lord, release your grace and the power of your Spirit into each of us afresh.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.