Today I will be finishing up, thankfully, with what will block the blessings of God and next time move on to a really exciting topic (one of my favorite "secrets")âwhat will MULTIPLY your blessings! But, before I do, I want to answer a question that came into our office and that was:Â
"What exactly do you (the Bible) mean by a "double-minded man"? Is this "doubting that God will restore your marriage"? (not that He can't, just that he won't for some reason). Also, was there ever a time that you thought that your marriage wouldn't get restored? Thanks!"Â
This is a good question because I have heard so many Christians simplify double-mindedness to actually mean doubt or doubting. Certainly, there is a correlation between the two, but I believe that doubt is a result of double-mindedness, but they don't have the same meaning.Â
Double-minded is defined in Noah's 1928 Webster's Dictionary as "Having different minds at different times; unsettled; wavering; unstable; undetermined." Therefore it appears that double-mindedness is the state of having different minds at different timesâusually, but not always when the enemy strikes. Being "unsettled" can actually happen at any time when the thing (restoration) is not fully believed.Â
A couple of weeks ago (when I encouraged you to seek God to see if it is HIS will to restore you), if you did (as so many did) then you can "settle it" so you won't be "unsettled" or "unstable" in all your ways. And certainly, any person, once they have the Lord's assurance that He does have a desire to restore their marriage, would be "determined" (rather than undetermined) to "finish the course."Â
Next, to answer the second part of the question, to be totally honest with you, until He restored my marriage I wasnât sure it would be restored, but thatâs because not too long after I began my Restoration Journey, my focus changed to simply wanting more of Him. So much so, that near the end I âknewâ He was about to restore it, even though the normal âsignsâ said differently. And it was then that I began to remind the Lord just how glorious it was with just the two of us and to reconsider restoration.Â
Let me assure you, far too many men and women ask God if it is His plan, and then fail to follow through by writing it âon the doorpost of their hearts.â So that when the enemy comes in with a good blow (that makes restoration look so very hopeless by something that their spouse says or something someone else says about their spouse, or itâs something they see) then they question again if it is God's will. These are the double-minded that God says should "expect nothing" from Him.Â
Yet, what will prevent being knocked down at all, is to simply turn your eyes and heart and focus from your restoration with your spouse to your Lord as I did when I experienced His love so abundantly! This is not just for your sakes, but for the sake of men and women around you who believe they need someone other than Him to make them happy and fulfilled and loved.Â
Itâs only when you get pure love, the love that can only be met by Him, when you are no longer vulnerable to the heartache of rejection.Â
It doesnât happen immediately, but often after we are rejected, and again and again and again, as I share in my own restored marriage testimony. The enemy was able to knock me to my lowest when he had me convinced that I had received my restoration, at Christmas, but "restoration" was only to be for those few short days. Yet, as I also share, it was others that I had been ministering to that were there to carry meâcarrying me on a pallet to the feet of Jesus where He healed me and restored me to Himself, when I became whole and wholly His!Â
So, if you haven't yet, get with God to find out if He wants to restore your marriage, you may want to lay out a fleece (read Judges 6:36-40). And if you read this passage, I always lay my fleece twice since this is what Gideon did. Simply ask God to show you that it is His will. Once He does this, then "settle it" in your mind, by writing it down and recording the vision. Remembering too, that it means itâs not going to be restored now, but at an appointed time:Â
Habakkuk 2:2-3âÂ
âThen the LORD answered me and said, âRecord the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that he one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, WAIT for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.ââÂ
This will allow you to never again waver in your restoration AND allow you to also ask Him to show you why He allowed this to happen. Like many who have asked, the Lord reveals it to help encourage others! Possibly even being trained to be a minister, which, by the way, is free and easy to do from home when you apply to RMIOU.Â
The enemy, however, will almost immediately come as a thief to "steal" promises away from you and maybe even convince you itâs not time to help others. But, if the soil of your heart is good, if it has been broken up, then His Word to you and Promises for you will be buried too deep to steal. Then, the tears you shed before Him (hopefully tears of joy once you experience His love) will water the Word and it will bring forth your harvestârestoration in due seasonâafter He knows He has you as His own.Â
Thereâs no way I could say this too much, but once you really just get a hold of how much the Lord loves you, I know that your relationship with who you are to HIM will mean that nothing else will really matter.Â
If I had to describe it, it's almost like you also have "someone" else, secretly (just as your spouse who is in adultery have.) Yet instead of being sinful, it's gloriously holy!! When someone insults you, you will not be hurt, because youâll think differently, "Well, that may be how you think, but I have a Lover of my own who says that He delights in me and rejoices in me!" (See Isaiah 62:4)Â
Even now I love to slip away and talk to Him; to make plans of when we will be meeting alone again! With this kind of love, instead of hurt, I can smile at anything and everything! With all this love that is running over, I am also able to love and bless even my enemies!Â
This is where I want each of you to be!! Though many of you are not there yet, itâs our mission and goal to get so deep with God that you never want to come up for air! Only in this place will you be able to move mountains and do the exploits that the LORD wants to do through you and me!Â
Rather than going on with what I had planned to say, I think it's important that we stop and selah. I don't want to move on because I personally just want to stay and meditate here. We will pick it up next time and finish what can block your blessings.Â
Today, letâs remember to simply be BLESSEDâby getting into such a state of intimacy that we never dreamed we could have!Â
Isaiah 48:6â
âI proclaim to you new things from this time, Even hidden things which you have not known."Â
Let me end today by stating how I simply LOVE how He is uncovering hidden things from the past, while revising this series from 2004âlike the dictionary! I used to have this huge dictionary sitting on my desk to refer to, but now, I have the ONLINE version that I just bookmarked and put in my Online Bibles folder (which I would encourage each of you to do). Now rather than looking up words in a secular dictionary, I can go back to the one that believed the source of all wisdom was the Bible and referred to it often!Â
If you have a testimony or a praise report about this week's message that you would like to share, please take a moment to CLICK HERE to submit your Praise Report.Â