Hey family. I would like to introduce just a small snippet of our prayer meeting on Sundays.
This is from my other channel Marriage for the Purpose of Eternity. We have now begun the war room prayer meeting every Sunday at 8pm interceding for marriages, family and children. My cousin Antoinette leads the prayer session with teaching and prayer points. She has been married for almost 12 years and has endured through very difficult test to continue to love like Christ to believe in all things, hope in all things and endure in all things as the scripture says in 1 Corinthians 13:7.
She is a well spring of wisdom by adding personal experience and testimonies that make it relatable for anyone joining. We will have others leading the prayer meeting at different times. We then pray in the spirit covering marriage, praying the prayer points and interceding for others. Join us on zoom at 8pm every Sunday if you can’t please send prayer request to marriage4thepurposeofeternity@gmail.com and we will pray for you. Here is a small snippet look forward to having you join us next Sunday!
War room Prayer line:
Antoinette: And so once again, I think in the past, the last few last week was about patience. In the past, we talked about love. If we practice all these things and put these things in place, we will see the enemy coming at us, we will see the strategies of the enemy, we see the weapons the enemy is using and we won’t easily get offended. Another thing that we see the enemy use to easily offend us is our emotions. And I know this is a huge one and girl, women can be really sensitive. But these days men are just as sensitive, I will say, you know, so the enemy will use your emotions against you. And the Bible says the heart is deceiving so easily so that you can get so easily worked up, so easily offended, so easily offended by what your partner will do or say or act or you know, and it’s all in your mind. Apart from emotions is the mind as well. But the enemy will be using things, whispering thoughts, whispering these negative thoughts about your partner. Yeah, they do that on purpose. Yeah, you see he didn’t even notice you. Yeah, you did your hair; he didn’t even say that your hair was nice. You know, all these little things whispering evil thoughts in your mind.
“Oh, he doesn’t love you.”
“See, oh my goodness, another person is calling. It must be another girl calling” or “Oh no, he’s with his co-worker”.
All these insecurities that the enemy was just bombarding your mind with this is also another strategy of the enemy. Whispering and putting all these evil thoughts and negative thoughts in your mind about your partner. You know, and so I would always say, “Rebuke these thoughts straight away and say the opposite of whatever the enemy is saying in your mind.” So once again, these are just things that I would bring up today just to discuss briefly how the enemy is attacking us. So it starts with these small things, but then it becomes frustration and arguing and bickering. And then you don’t even know how it started. But then you’re just arguing and you’re not you’re not being nice to each other.
You’re keeping things inside yourself. You’re you know, you’re just shouting, you’re screaming, you know, you’re offended, you’re offended, you’re second guessing one another. And then it just develops, develops, develops, develops a year down the track, two years down the track, three years into the marriage, four or five, six years into the marriage, you just can’t even stand being with that person, that person that you so loved, that you walked down the altar with that, you know, you said, I’m going to love this person for the rest of my life, you can’t even recognize them anymore.
You know, I heard a famous preacher the other day saying that love doesn’t keep a marriage. And in the first in the first chance, I would be like. In the first sense, I would be like, that’s true. But when I thought deeply about it and how the Lord was using me to talk about love, I was like, no, this is wrong, because God is all about love, and everything about God is love and everything about Christ is love. So when we have Christ, it’s all love. And Christ wants us if we have love and we’re loving like Christ in our marriage, nothing can go wrong because then you’re patient, then you’re tolerant, then you can put up with your partner, then you can see you can rather see them as a victim. You pray for them instead of like, instead of shouting at them, you’re more understanding because you love the person, you know, being in love, the feeling that we can go away. But I think that truly God always loves us so we can love like Christ. That is I don’t see how that love doesn’t keep a marriage. I don’t believe in that at all. I honestly believe that it’s not human love doesn’t keep a marriage.
But if we aim to love like Christ, then definitely that will keep a marriage. Am I going over time or do we have more time? Yeah, you have more time. OK, so, yes, I would like us to do this today just to think about how the enemy has been using you. Don’t think about your partner. And so often I so often I always think about what my husband has done to me. A, B, C, you know? But the Holy Spirit is always interested in what I’m doing because God is always interested in correcting you and fixing you and helping you change first. So I just like us to right now just take a minute to ourselves. Everything that I’ve said, just take a minute to yourself and look at yourself and think about it. Think about like, what are you doing? How has the enemy used you this week in your marriage?
Anything that the enemy has whispered in your thoughts, bad thoughts you’ve had in your mind, whatever the enemy has done or has used you, maybe you’ve said some words you should have not said. Maybe you thought of some things that you should have not thought about. Maybe you did things that you know your partner doesn’t like, but you did it anyway, knowing that your partner didn’t like it. Whatever it may be, big or small, just think about it. Take a minute. It’s going to be silent for a minute for us to just look at ourselves. Look at yourself. Don’t look at your partner. Don’t look at your spouse. Look at yourself and think about what you have done. And if you don’t have a spouse and you’re on the line, then just think about yourself. Maybe anything that you’ve done out of character that you know that God may not be pleased with, you know, ask the Holy Spirit to show these things to you.
Now, if you’ve thought about that. What reflection, self-reflection that you’ve done, and then you can just ask the Holy Spirit what you can do differently. What could have you done differently? How could you have handled the situation differently? I would like to give an example of something personally that happened to me. Just to maybe help everybody else.
So last week, I had a really important event. One of my nieces was getting married, and so it was a huge event in Ghana. Like Ghana, they do weddings big here. They go all out. So we had a black tie event, and my uncle personally called us and said, “Listen, it’s a black-tie event. Make sure you dress up.” I don’t usually go to weddings a lot, but I see the way that they dress up for the wedding. So I was like, I was very particular. So I was praying the whole week about what I was going to wear. And I was praying the whole week that my husband would like what I was going to wear. And I mean, I pray. Like, I mean, I called everyone to pray. I called with Mother Mary. I prayed for my son. I prayed with everyone that that night. I prayed that I would look amazing and that my husband would love what I would wear. You know, I was dressing for him. Okay. So that day, I got ready, got my hair done, my makeup done, and put my dress on. My husband came to pick me up at the event.
And when he got here, he was underdressed but I didn’t say anything. But then he looked at me and he was like, “You’re so overdressed.” And he all of a sudden just got really upset. And he’s like, “You’re so overdressed. Why are you so overdressed? You’re not the bride.” Blah, blah, blah. He got upset about it. And he left. He said “I’m not going with you. You’re too overdressed.” And he left. He left without me. Yes. I’m giving you guys this testimony because I want you to see what happened next. Okay. So just remember, I’ve been praying the whole week about this. So now I’ve been praying about this. Now the enemy started to bombard me with thoughts. Ah, you see? See, I told you. Do you want to like your dress? You got it after your prayers. All that praying you did for nothing. Blah, blah, blah. You know, all these negative thoughts were going through my mind. And I was just like, oh my gosh, oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.
Now, you know, the funny thing is how I had to put myself in the car because the dress was so big that I couldn’t, how am I going to drive inside the car? So I managed to get inside the car. And they had to like put the whole, the rest of the dress inside the car. So I got inside the car and as I was driving, I was trying to call my spiritual mother because I was so upset. I was like, oh my Lord, I can’t even cry because I spent all this time doing makeup, you know, and I was like, how could he do this? Like, how could he leave me? Like, what kind of person does this? Like, this is just so wrong. Like, I’m so done. Like, this is it. Like, you know, like this is it, you know? And then I was trying to call my spiritual mother. So I was driving, I was driving, you know, and she wouldn’t pick up. And I was like, Lord, what is happening here? Like, what? Like, I just needed some comfort. Somebody talk to me like at that point.
And I heard the Lord saying, oh, oh, he is little faith. And I was just like, oh my God, Lord. And God that I promised you, like, I, and I, the thing is in my quiet time that day, God had told me that he promised me that I was going to have an amazing event and he promised me that I would go to the event and everybody would be saying, oh, you look so amazing. Like you, you know, like, you know, you look so wonderful. You look beautiful. And that my husband would be happy with it. And so the opposite just occurred. And then God was telling me, “Oh, ye of little faith.”
I was like, what? You know what I mean? Like, what? And I, so as I was driving, I was like, you know, okay, fine. I called my spiritual mother, maybe 10 times. She didn’t even pick up. I was destroyed. I couldn’t cry. Like, you know, when you want to cry, but you can’t cry. So I had to like, suck it in. And I was like, okay. So I started, okay, you know what? I’m going to pray. I’m just going to pray. I put my music on in my car. I worshiped music, started worshiping, and started praying. As I was praying, a part of me was really angry. So as I’m praying, like I’m, I’m saying the prayer and I’m like, this is, this is so wrong. Like, you know, like I’m saying, oh Lord, thank you for this. Thank you I’m going to go to the event. And then like, you know, even my husband himself is going to, you know, like turn around and like, and then I’m still angry. I’m still angry. So as I was praying, I was like, nah, this is wrong.
So I started rebuking my anger and I started just saying like, because the enemy was just bombarding me with all these negative thoughts and all these thoughts and I was like, nope, no, no, no, no. I started rejecting it. I finally got a hold of myself. Cause I was like, holy crap, I just really need your help right now. I need your help right now to get it together. I got myself together and I started declaring by faith what I wanted to happen. I said, I declared by faith that as I get to the event, my husband is the one who’s going to be embarrassed because he’s going to be underdressed and everyone else is going to be overdressed. Like, you know, like just like me. And I was like, declared by faith that.
Oh yes, I was. Yes, I was. I was declared by faith. I was like an enemy. No, I was declared by faith that I was going to have an amazing night and that my husband was going to end up apologizing to me and telling me how beautiful I was. And I, and then I started saying to myself, speaking to myself, people were speaking to myself, oh my goodness, Marie Antoinette, you look so nice today. Oh wow. I was like saying it to myself, like, like a crazy person driving and talking. But I was, I was like, not, I am like adamant. This is going to work. So guess what happened? I’m almost there. I’m like five minutes away from the event. Guess who calls me? My husband calls me. He’s like calling me on the phone. He’s calling me on the phone. And I was like, oh, should I pick up? And I was like, oh, let me just pick up, you know? So I picked up the phone. I was like, yes. And then he was like, where are you? I’m like, aren’t you the person that left?
Like, why are you asking me where I am? He’s like, oh no, no, please. Like, where are you? I’m like, I’m just five minutes. Like, it’s okay. Okay. I’m waiting for you at the front. Okay. I was like, huh? I was like, okay, alright, whatever. You know? So I got to me, I got there and like, it’s so funny because it was a huge wedding, so everybody was like parked far away and then the Lord was like, you’ll see favor the whole night. And just the little things that God did to him that day were so amazing. So I got there and the man, the security guard parked me right in front of the And he, like, he literally, like there was a, a block way, but he moved it so that I could talk right there. So I wouldn’t have to walk all the way. Thank goodness. Because of my dress, I didn’t know what I was going to do. And so then my husband came and he was like, oh my goodness, I’m so embarrassed, I’m so underdressed. You know, like he was saying everything that I said he would.
I was like, oh my goodness. Lord. And then as soon as we stepped in the event, everybody was complimenting me. Oh, you look so beautiful. Wow. I love your dress. You look amazing. And then my husband takes my hand back and then he holds my hand. And he wants to show you off. Yes, exactly. He wants to show me off. So then he was like holding me and grabbing me. And then he’s like, okay, so do you want me to help you with the dress? Do you want me to hold your dress? I was like, no, just hold my hand back. So I was like, wow, Lord. The whole time I had this huge smile and nobody knew the smile that I had inside my heart, because God had done what he was going to do. So I think my, my whole testimony to you and then just talking about this is how the enemy works against us, even the last minute, like sometimes we’ll pray.
God has already answered our prayers. God had already answered my prayers. But you see what the enemy did? I could have just like easily, maybe given up on that moment. I’m not going to the event. Or I’m like; I could have just like maybe also been angry at my husband. Like, you know, also like when he turned around, you know when God touched him and he turned around, I could have like also met him with anger. Yeah. Cold shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. But I decided not to because I knew God had already spoken to my heart. So I just hope that little story encouraged you guys that this is marriage. You know, marriage is hard. The enemy is always going to be using us against each other, especially when you’re praying because the enemy doesn’t want you to feel that God is by your side.
And so every little thing, you know, it’s just this, this is a very small thing, but you’re married, you know what I mean? You know, if you’re a woman, you know how hard it is to get dressed and all these things, and you know, your whole thing is to please, you don’t even care about anybody at the event, you just want to please your husband all the time. So I just hope that this little story encouraged everybody today not to give up. And if you pray, pray in faith and believe that God has heard you, because he has, and just to recognize these little attacks that the enemy’s always going to attack us.
The enemy is always going to use you against your spouse. It’s like, you know, marriage is preparing us for heaven, you know, so the enemy uses and God allows these things to happen to test your faith, to test you, and to help you to grow as well. You know, so it is difficult sometimes. It’s very, very difficult. You get high. But, you know, we must trust God and we must keep doing everything out of love, love, love, love, love. Just remember love, love, love, love, love, and then pray that you know, it will be well with all of us. Yeah. So thank you guys today.
That is what I have to speak about. And I’d like us to go into prayer today. And we’re going to be praying against every evil force that is creating confusion in marriages and turning married couples against each other. Just remember that every day when you wake up, just remember that it’s not you. It’s not your spouse. Is there something higher and bigger behind the scenes doing these things so we shouldn’t be angry at each other. We should be kind and loving and patient and forgiving, knowing that, okay, you know what? This is a person. I’m still the same person. Even the person is even better now because together, we are better. And then just remembering that the enemy is using, you know, how can we deal with this? How can we see the tactics of the enemy? What strategy is the enemy using today? Quickly see it and deal with it quickly and pray it out.
Mother, you’re going to lead the prayer or should I?
Mother Elisha: I don’t know if anyone had anything to add or a question they wanted to ask?
Speaker 1: I don’t have a question, but I just wanted to just say thank you so much for sharing that testimony. That was very putting into perspective. I mean, just hearing it to me, it was funny. But at the same time, too, like the way that most of us would have reacted, I know I can speak for myself. I wouldn’t have been with so much care considering I would see them as a victim of the enemy. I’ll take it personally. So I just want to thank you for sharing that.
Mother Elisha: Yeah, a great example of self-control. Thank you so much. Anyone else?
Speaker 2: I think it was good for even people like us who’ve been married for years because like she said, this week I was impatient with Caroline a couple of times, quite impatient. But, you know, sometimes if you’re not careful, you think she’s the enemy. And she’s not the enemy. Well, yeah, true. You know, so it’s a good it’s a timely message. And I think because marriage is the most intimate relationship in the world, in mankind. So, you know, if you know, if your marriage works, if you know what we are being taught tonight works for you, you can easily spot what the devil is doing. It will be even outside your marriage. Things can be very easy because marriage is the most intimate. You know, we are very familiar with each other in marriage. You know, it’s easy to take granted of your of your of your spouse. So if you quickly realize the work of the devil, because, for me, I’ll tell you very easily, it’s easy for me to look at the people I deal with every day and I can easily see this as the devil and I restrain myself. But sometimes in the home, it becomes difficult because I expect her to know better. So I think it’s important here. And, you know, you can waste a lot of graces even for two, three hours because you’ve just you’ve sulked. You know, you can just, you know, even grown men like us sulk sometimes because of, you know, you don’t know what to do. So you wake up sulking for a couple of hours. I know that’s the devil does that, especially in ministry. It even interferes with the prayer and whatever you need to be doing. So thank you for the message.
Mother Elisha: Yeah, amen to that. And I just add to it’s interesting because the pastor that we talked about this Sunday was about casting down every thought and high imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and holding every thought captive and how the enemy plays a spirit called the tyranny of memories. And this spirit is good at replaying memories of the memories, your relationship. A lot of us, many of us, have triggers, as the Internet said, and triggers are simply just buttons and buttons that have been formed through experiences in our life, whether it’s through childhood, adolescence, our youth, and especially in as we’re talking about marriages, it comes a lot of times from our past, our past or even experiences in your marriage that the person has done.
And the enemy is so good at just as she mentioned for me, I realized the Lord has given me the grace to kind of understand when the enemy presents itself in a situation. But he told me also the one-way area I’m weak is when he comes and he does something. If it’s a one-time situation happens, something happens or, you know, my husband does something, and me like my flesh wants to rise. Wait a minute. This enemy is trying to raise me. I’m going to fall for it. So he does it one time. I’m good. But let it be like five times in the day. The first time I was good. The second time it happens again. Wait a minute. Is that like he doing this on purpose? The third time I got frustrated, and irritated.
The fourth time I just exploded. And so he has a blueprint for all of us and he knows our buttons. One thing may be a button for you. Let’s just somebody else. They may not respond or get angry about that situation. We have to come to a place of really knowing ourselves, knowing the areas where we’ve been wounded in the past, asking what to heal that. And most importantly, I think just really find on the thoughts, because when the button is pressed, the first thing that we want to respond is to take that personal or make it seem as if, you know, you’ve been hurt by some of the tick offense, just as she mentioned. And we take offense to getting to respond in silence and love or in communicating that effective to the person or rather responding in anger. And a lot of times it just comes down to patience. But when we’re not patient, just give great glory; give you a great example, a great testimony of just your patience, trusting when I’m Lord and trusting with his word versus responding and reacting.
And I think many times I know for me, I’ve struggled with reacting because I’m just I just naturally want to just react, or I would want to talk about it. And if he reacts in a certain way, that’s not favorable to what I want. Like somebody who’s like, oh, I understand, honey. Come give me a hug. I’m so sorry. That works for me. And you saw the anger, irritation. That’s exactly what happened this week, you know, he’s so angry and irritated. I was like, no, he didn’t. I’m going to go outside, let me get myself together, let me help you, help me grab myself together. And just things happen back to back, all these triggers.
I was like, man, the devil is just having a field day. So I think it’s just coming to a place, recognizing yourself, you know, what triggers you. And then she also mentioned trying to cast on a thought and I’ll speak the best over the situation. And sometimes he likes it, even if like her story was such a testimony to me many more times that you’ll pray and do these things that go opposite. And that’s really where we’re tested to as well, to see if the person to respond favorably, how we’re going to respond. We still meet cold and are going to be silent. And I struggle with those things, too, as well. So this is a great point that you brought up. And I think as you as I’ve learned as we’re doing these prayer meetings, we’re always I’m always testing everything that you teach, everything I teach. I know that this week, guys, just be sure.
We’ll all be tested in this area of not seeing our spouses or seeing a situation as seeing the enemy for what he presents, versus seeing our spouse as the enemy. So we definitely have to be mindful, ask the Lord for grace to cast on our thoughts, and always just think the best. May He help us all.
Published by