Lisa Comes (Nee Lisa Osteen) - Six Lies the Devil Uses to Destroy Marriages

Contents

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself ; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Ephesians 5:25-33

Introduction

What is the will of God for your marriage?

Simply stated, God wants you to love your mate, and He wants your mate to love you.

He wants you to leave your mother and father, to cleave unto your mate, to nourish, to cherish, to admire, and to respect him or her as the Word of God says.

Three Things You Must Know About Marriage

1. God wants you to have a happy marriage

God wants you to be happy in your marriage. He wants the two of you, husband and wife, to be one. The Bible says that you are one flesh. He wants you to be in agreement, at peace with one another. God wants you to have a strong, consistent, stable, and beautiful marriage.

You may feel that your marital situation is far from God's plan for the ideal marriage. Probably most couples fall short of having the marriage relationship they'd like to have. But I believe you can get there. It is not impossible to have what God wants you to have. The Bible says in Ephesians 1:3 that God wants to bless us with all blessings. And a marriage is to be blessed.

So the first thing I want you to know and fully understand is that God wants to bless you in your marriage relationship. He wants you to have a beautiful, happy marriage.

2. God has a plan for your marriage

The second thing you must understand is that God has a plan for your marriage. He has a specific purpose for your marriagea reason for you and your mate to be together. The two of you together have a specific place and ministry in the Body of Christ.

I think often about the marriage and ministry of my mother and father. Where would I be, where would my family be, where would this ministry be if they had let the devil destroy their marriage? Certainly they wouldn't be reaching and blessing other people. They wouldn't be happy in their own lives. But they are fulfilling God's plan for their marriage ... and for their ministry. The two are interrelatedtied up together. You must realize that God has a plan for your marriage your ministry together. I don't necessarily mean that you're called to a full-time ministry, but God does have a ministry for you. He's called every believer to be a minister for Him.

Remember, God established the home before He ever established the Church. And until our homes come together, until our marriages come together, the Church is always going to be hurting. The Bible says "Two are better than one ... for if they fall, one will lift up his companion" (see Ecclesiastes 4:9 ,10 ). God wants you and your mate to take your place in the Body of Christ and fulfill the plans He has for you.

3. Satan is the enemy of your marriage

The third thing I want to establish with you is that you have an enemy. Satan is your enemy! And he doesn't want your marriage to be happy.

He doesn't want God's perfect will to be fulfilled in your life. He'll do everything in his power to thwart the plan of God in your life. So we're going to talk about the schemes and tactics the devil uses to destroy marriages. It's important to learn to recognize his schemes, his plans, and his lies in order to prevent him from destroying your marriage.

I have learned in working with people and their marriages over the past few years that the devil doesn't have any new plans and schemes. He uses the same old lines over and over. People come to me and say, "My mate said this, that, and the other." Or they'll say, "You know, I have this thought, and this temptation." I can almost tell them what they're going to say before they say it because I hear the same thing over and over again.

How foolish the devil is! He has no new tricks. He deceives the Body of Christ with his same old lies again and again. We must learn to detect the voice of the evil one when he whispers these lies in our ears. If we don't, we'll let him deceive us and destroy our marriages.

In this book we're going to take a look at the most common deceptions Satan uses against marriages. You'll learn to recognize and refute from God's Word the six lies the devil most often uses to destroy marriages.

The Bible says in John 8:44 that the devil is a liar and the father of all lies. The devil lied to Adam and Eve in the very beginning and he's lied to God's people ever since. Unfortunately, too often when couples hear these lies, they believe them. They accept Satan's deception as reality. I want you to learn to recognize truth and realize when the enemy is whispering in your ear.

Perhaps you are not troubled with all of Satan's liessome of the things we'll talk about may not apply to you. But look at them all. Then if you ever get in a place where you're struggling and you hear one of these lies, you'll be able to recognize the devil's work right away and be able drive the enemy away from your marriage.

Satan's First Lie: God's Word Doesn't Provide Healing for Marriages

The first lie the devil tells so many hurting couplesLie Oneis simply, "God's Word really doesn't provide marriage healing."

I hear this so much"I just don't think God can heal my marriage. I don't see in the Bible where He healed marriages. I just don't think it's in God's Word."

How sad when people really believe they have no choice except to suffer in a bad marital situation or else get a divorce. Well, that's just not true. That's a lie of the devil! God doesn't want you to suffer and He doesn't want you to get a divorce. He wants to heal your marriage.

Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:9 both say the same thing What God hath joined together let no man put asunder. First Corinthians 7:27 says if you are married, do not seek a divorce. Then, in Malachi 2:16, God said, "I hate divorce."

Now, surely even reason and logic tell us that if God says not to divorce then He must have provided a way to prevent it. And He has!

Marriage healing is a part of the whole plan of redemption. Underscore that sentence! Get it into your spirit! Marriage healing is a part of the whole plan of redemption.

We are Redeemed from Divorce

Jesus redeemed us on the cross. He redeemed us from sin, sickness, and disease. The Bible says He restored all that the devil took from us and that includes a blessed and beautiful marriage. According to Galatians 3:13 ,14 Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. And let me tell you, marriage problems are a curse of the law. Deuteronomy 28 makes it clear that it's a curse to live in divorce and adultery. It talks about being away from your family and being away from your homethat certainly can describe the effect of divorce and adultery. And it's a curse. The Bible says Jesus redeemed us from that curse. So we don't have to live with divorce in our lives.

One day the Pharisees came to Jesus and said, "Well, Moses permitted the people to divorce." And this was Jesus' answer: "But from the beginning this was not so" (see Mark 10).

What He was saying was that this was not God's original plan, not His will. So Jesus, on the cross, brought us back to the beginning. He brought us back to His original plan, and that is for you to have a blessed and beautiful marriage. You don't have to stay in an unhappy marriage and suffer. And you don't have to get a divorce. You can be free. Your marriage can be healed.