Chapter 9

“SUPPRESSION, SUBORDINATION, SUBMISSION & INTIMIDATION”

(FOR HUSBANDS ONLY)

We had a friend once, who’s husband demanded that his wife be submissive to his command that she participate in sexual immorality with others. Let me ask you a question. The Bible says, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” and “Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” Do you think that she should have submitted to her husband in this? What does the Bible say?

What about this question of submission and authority?

In contrast to this, we have the women’s liberation movement, demanding increased rights for women. Sometimes, the pendulum has swung too far the other way. One time a man I know asked his Christian mother, “Mom, if Dad asked you to do something that you didn’t want to do, what would you do?” She joyfully replied, “Why, I’d tell him to go jump in the lake!”

 

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SUBMISSIVE... ”

I got a call one morning from a lady in a church where we had pastored. She was crying. Through her tears she confided that her husband often hit her with the phrase, “You’ve got to be submissive to me.” I told her, “You don’t have to be submissive to your husband.” She gasped with surprise, and said, “I don’t?” “But the Bible says “ Then I explained to

her what I meant. I will explain this to you also in a moment.

On another occasion my wife and I were counseling a young couple, just before they were to be married. “What is your greatest fear as you approach marriage?”, I asked her. “My greatest fear”, this young lady replied, “is the prospect of

having to be submissive to my husband, and what that submission involves.”

There are groups that are known for their teaching on submission, but many of them fail to teach it properly. For example, do you know that most of the people that teach on submission from the book of Ephesians, start with the wrong verse? In fact, all but two Bible translations that I know of break the paragraph in the “wrong” place! Most Bibles and Bible teachers, begin the paragraph with Ephesians 5:22! It says: “Wives, (be subject) to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the Church, and He Himself is the Head of the Body. But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also the wives (ought to be) to their husbands in everything.”

But the proof that the subject should begin 1 verse earlier is found in the Bible itself The words “be subject”, (in verse 22), is not even in the original!

These words are added because the thought is a carry-through from the verse preceding! That verse SHOULD begin the thought. It says: “BE SUBJECT TO ONE ANOTHER IN THE FEAR OF CHRIST.”!!!

In fact, we are advocating that you try this at a meeting very soon: go through the entire book of Ephesians, concentrating completely on the way husband and wife should relate to each other. There are many examples, but let’s consider a few:

Eph.2:1O - the purpose our marriage is “...that we should do those good works that God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

3:17 - I pray “...that you may be rooted and grounded in love.”

3:19 - “And to know the love of Christ...that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

ETC., ETC., ETC.. All of chapter 4: verses 1,2, & 3 etc.

Talk about marriage counseling! WOW! Look at this: The specific section dealing with husbands and wives BEGINS with the command to the husband and wife to be subject to each other in the fear of God!

The rest of this chapter sees God twice commanding the husband to love his wife, as much as he loves himself, and TWICE commanding the husband to love and cherish his wife “AS MUCH AS CHRIST LOVES AND CHERISHES THE CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!”

 

JESUS WASHED HER FEET!

Remember how Jesus washed the disciple’s feet?

That’s how we are to love our wife! Remember how Jesus gave His Life for us? THAT’S how we are to cherish our wife! Remember how Jesus poured out His Heart for us? THAT is how we are to pour out our love for our wife! Remember how He prays for us?

THAT IS HOW WE ARE TO LOVE. God commands us in the Bible: “Husband, love your wife, JUST AS CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH AND GAVE HIMSELF UP FOR HER...”!!! That’s from Ephesians 5:25. And then Yahweh repeats Himself by saying, “IN THE SAME WAY, husbands ought to love their wife...JUST AS CHRIST DOES THE CHURCH.”!!! (from verses 28 & 29).

 

AUTHORITY

The story is told of this one couple who just returned from their honeymoon. The husband came down for breakfast on his way to work, and presented his wife with her “list”. She said, “What is this?” He said, “This is your list of things that lam commanding you to do for me during the day today.” She looked at her list, and it said, “Number 1. Clean my dirty house! Number 2: Clean my dirty clothes! 3. My dirty floors, 4. Dirty dishes, etc! 5. When I come home from work, I want you to greet me with a kiss!” The wife broke into tears, and said, “Darling, these are all the things that I intended to do for you anyway, simply because of my love for you!’

 

SUBORDINATE

There is no question about the fact that in the Kingdom Of God, God has established that there be authority-subordinate relationships. Christ Jesus is subject to the Father. Children are to be submissive to their parents, in the Lord. The wife is to be submissive to her husband. We are to be subject to the laws of the land. The church is commanded to obey the elders in the Body of Christ. But in all of these subordinate- authority relationships, never once is superiority/ inferiority of worth or value indicated. God is not a “respecter of persons”. As the saying goes, “The ground is all level, at the foot of the Cross.” In fact, it is a Kingdom principle, that the more authority one is called to, in the Body of Christ, the more of a SERVANT or BONDSLAVE that one is to be and become. Some ministers or ministries seem to forget that the word “minister” means “servant” and that “to minister” means “to serve”! Jesus said, “He that would be the greatest in the Kingdom Of God, must be the servant of all!!!” The Bible says that we should “...in humility, count or consider all people as better than ourselves!” (Ph.2:3). Do you count your mate, as better than yourself???

 

THE SCANDINAVIAN GODDESS, or MY WIFE HAD PA-ZAZ!

When I first met and married Karen, she was like a Scandinavian goddess! She was like a wonderful creature on the mountains wild and free, with fire coming from beneath her feet when she walked! She was filled with effervescence, buoyancy, life and radiance. Her personality had pa-ZAZ!

It took me about five years to quench her spirit, kill her effervescence, and put out the fire. What I did was criminal! BUT...!!!!!!!!!! (This story has a happy ending!!! But it has a slightly sad “middle”.) Listen, if you will.

Both Karen and! had an improper concept of what our relationship was to be. My concept of the way our relationship was to work was incorrect, though I thought it was correct. Neither one of us had a working model, that we knew of, of what a relationship should be like. We had the Scriptures, of course, but had had no one to teach or train us as to how the relationship should work, (or if we did have a model or a teacher, we failed to take advantage of it.)

For example, as we said before, the pattern of God for a woman to find out how to be a good wife and mother, is for the “Older (or more mature) woman to TRAIN or teach the younger woman HOW...TO LOVE HER HUSBAND!!! (Titus 2.)

So, we both kind of gravitated to the prevailing attitude about the Scriptures and kind of guessed our way along, not having had a teacher. As it turned out, we both guessed wrong, in certain important ways. I felt that the Bible entitled me to browbeat and intimidate her. I felt that intimidation could be a legitimate tool to influence people God-ward. (A lot of people still think that.) And so, I would intimidate my wife, “You’ve got to be submissive to me, woman!” I would not take her by the throat when I said this, but! would take her love for me, her spirit by the problem of both physical and psychological abuse. First of all God says, DON’T!!!!! God says, “Your way of relating to your wife has and is being accredited to your account, as having been done to Christ!!!” Jesus is saying to you, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Some husbands think that they are justified in beating or browbeating their wife. They are not! Before God, they are not! No form of intimidation of any kind is ever justified in the eyes of God. The wife is just as responsible, if she allows herself to be intimidated. None of us ever has to be intimidated by anyone or any thing ever again!

Let’s say that someone holds me up at gunpoint and demands my money. I may, in fact, give him some money, but not because he is intimidating me into it or forcing me. If I give him money, it is because I decide to give it to him, not because he decides to take it from me. I really do have a number of alternatives! 1. I can call down upon him the angry and fierce judgment of God. 2.1 can stall him for time and talk to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I can begin praying, #4, singing, 5, dancing, or 6, speaking in a heavenly language. 7. I can take this opportunity to enter heaven. 8.1 can poke his eyes out, or, 9, bite off his ear, or, 10, crush his Adam’s apple. 11.1 can fall down and fake a heart attack. Or, 12.1 can give him the money.

We have a friend who was attacked by a man intent on rape. When she began speaking in tongues, the man became terror stricken, and ran away! We have another friend who was attacked by a knife waving gang, bent on murder. Our friend shouted, “The the throat, and in the spirit or soul realm, would squeeze, and shake and maybe even snarl, “You’ve got to be submissive to me, woman.” Do you think I was naughty? Well, I was.

And, not to excuse myself, but there are vast numbers of husbands and teachers and pastors and policemen and judges and elders and parents who are still trying to win through intimidation!!! God forbids this!!! He is so against intimidation that He will let us go to hell, if we so choose!

I asked the Lord one time, “How I should behave toward my wife, if she is rebellious towards me.

Should I lock her, in a room? Drag her by the hair?” (I know a “Christian” husband who once tore his wife’s hair out by the hands-full. They are not living together any more for some reason.) “Should I take her car keys away from her?”

It seemed as though the Lord answered me, “Behave toward her in her rebellion, just like I relate to you in yours.” And with that revelation came the realization that if I misbehaved toward the Lord, that He was long-suffering, patient, kind, ready to forgive, yearning over me, loving me and doing good to and for me. THAT is how God expected me to relate to my wife if she acted rebelliously toward me.

 

WIFE BEATING!!!

Answer “yes” or “no”! Have you stopped beating your wife yet??? I can thank God that I was never a wife beater in the sense of physical abuse! But the psychic abuse can be even more painful. Let’s look at the problem of both physical and psychological abuse. First of all God says, DON’T!!!!! God says, “Your way of relating to your wife has and is being accredited to your account, as having been done to Christ!!!” Jesus is saying to you. “Why are you persecuting Me?” Some husbands think that they are justified in beating or browbeating their wife. They are not! Before God, they are not! No form of intimidation of any kind is ever justified in the eyes of God. The wife is just as responsible, if she allows herself to be intimidated. None of us ever has to be intimidated by anyone or any thing ever again!

Let’s say that someone holds me up at gunpoint and demands my money. I may, in fact, give him some money, but not because he is intimidating me into it or forcing me. If I give him money, it is because I decide to give it to him, not because he decides to take it from me. I really do have a number of alternatives! 1.1 can call down upon him the angry and fierce judgment of God. 2.1 can stall him for time and talk to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. 1 can begin praying. #4, singing, 5, dancing, or 6, speaking in a heavenly language. 7. I can take this opportunity to enter heaven. 8.1 can poke his eyes out, or, 9, bite off his ear, or, 10, crush his adam’s apple. 11.1 can fall down and fake a heart attack. Or, 12.1 can give him the money.

We have a friend who was attacked by a man intent on rape. When she began speaking in tongues, the man became terror stricken, and ran away! We have another friend who was attacked by a knife waving gang, bent on murder. Our friend shouted, “The Christ in me is greater than the devil in you! I rebuke you in the Mighty Name of Jesus!” Though dark skinned, the gang reportedly turned white as a sheet, dropped their knives and fled!

Wife, your husband has to go to sleep sometime! You definitely have some choices. You really really do. If you decide to lovingly tie him up and then break his legs with a ball bat, while he is sleeping, the choice is yours. He definitely will be helpless at some time or other. If you decide to die as a martyr before his onslaught, you have a choice. But, if you decide to turn the other cheek, let it be because that’s what you choose to do, not because you have to. You can decide, and we recommend this, that you decide that never never ever again, will you allow yourself to be intimidated by any one, at any time about any thing under any circumstance! Do you think that Jesus was intimidated by the crowds when they were crucifying Him? Not at all! At the utterance of one word, He had 72,000 angels at His disposal - and so do you! Husband, God is hereby serving notice on you! If you intimidate, beat, or browbeat your wife, be it known unto you, that God Himself will get you, and He will get you 8ood! “Vengeance is Mine, I WILL REPAY, saith the Lord”!!!!!!!! The Bible says “IT ISA FEARFUL THING TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE LIVING GOD!” And, so it is.

 

ANCIENT HISTORY

The first five years of our marriage I systematically tried to restrain my wife’s spirit, thinking I was doing the will of God. I felt that I needed to strive for my headship as a husband. My wife accepted the restraint, thinking that submission meant subjugation. She accepted an illegitimate restraint on her spirit.

The Scandinavian goddess was restrained. The once fire filled creature, wild and free, was now a broken plow horse nag standing dead eyed and sway-backed in the middle of the corral. The fire was gone. She said, “O.K., any thing you say, just speak the word, (or hit me with a stick), and we’ll be on our way.” I never physically hit or beat her, only verbally or psychically, which is just as bad. Then came the time when we both discovered that the marriage relationship must NOT be based on intimidation or ungodly restraint. I repented for restraining her spirit, and she repented for allowing me to.

It took another five years for the fire to come back. She is once again my Scandinavian goddess. (I don’t mean in the sense of idolatry or worship, but in the sense of being precious, and highly esteemed). She is now filled with joy and effervescence and life!!!

Picture, if you will, some one holding a rose by the head with his hand over the blossom. As he holds the flower, (not quite crushing it), saying, “You’ve got to be a flower! You have to smell sweet and look purty, or I’ll smush you!” In contrast, can you picture someone gently and tenderly holding a rose or priceless vase on his open palms, and saying, “Thank you for looking good and smelling sweet.”

Thus saith the Lord, “INTIMIDATION AND LOVE CANNOT CO-EXIST!!!” Intimidation and love are mutually exclusive terms. They are not compatible.

 

A LICENSE TO KILL

Why is it that so many men show absolutely no evidence of intimidation during the courtship. Just the opposite, it is all gentleness and kind entreaty. It’s flowers and sodas, movies and popcorn, it’s sweet somethings and skunk water (perfume). It’s, “hold the door for you, shnookums dear?” But after the honeymoon is over, some of these guys think they got a blessed license to - - - INTIMIDATE!!! It’s, “Woman, you gotta be submissive to me or else!!!” “Hey, do this!” or “You gotta do that! The wise woman will set him straight at the beginning, or at least from now on! She says to him, “Darling dear, let’s get one thing straight! If I am going to be submissive to you, I want you to understand very very clearly that it is only because I CHOOSE to be submissive to you, and NOT because you beat, brow- beat or intimidate me into it. If you want something to kick, get a dog or a foot ball, but you are not beating, browbeating or psychically kicking on me! God did not call me to be your punching bag or “sock-her” ball, nor the devil’s. There is not room in this home for love AND intimidation. You decide what you want to live with, me OR your belligerent bullying - there’s not room where I live - for both.” Those of you that are advocating the “turning of the other cheek” here, please understand, GOD NEVER CALLS US TO INTIMIDATION. If we turn the other cheek, let it be because we choose to, never because we have to.

We have some very dear friends, couples where the wife simply DECIDED that she had had enough bullying and browbeating and intimidation. She simply said, “That’s it!” And all of the repenting and sobbing and pleading and blubbering and after-the-fact non-intimidation didn’t put that humpty-dumpty relationship back together again. Lovely “Spirit- filled”, sweet little marriages shot to unhealable little pieces. My God, My God. Why have they forsaken You?

 

YOU DON’T HAVE TO RE SUBMISSIVE!

When I was a little boy, we were getting ready for church as a family, and I asked my mother, “Aw, Mom, do I HAVE to go to Sunday School???” She sweetly replied, “No, Son, it’s a privilege! — Now, get ready!” She was showing me the difference between “git to” and “got to”! My wife is not submissive to me because I make her be submissive, or because God does, but because she WANTS to, because she loves me, because she WANTS to do the will of God!

SOMEONE MIGHT SAY, “Yeah, but the Bible commands the wife to be submissive to her husband!” Yes, but the Bible also commands the husband to love his wife just as much as Christ loves us!!! But, do you know something? None of us HAVE to obey God -we can go to hell if we want to! THE EXISTENCE OF A LOVE RELATIONSHIP, PRESUPPOSES THE NECESSITY OF A FREE CHOICE!!!

I have told my wife, “Darling, I am willing to fly you to any place in the world, with or without me or the children, and support you there for as long as you want.” The reason I have told her this is that if she stays with me, I want to know, and I want her to know that, it is because she WANTS to, not because she HAS to. The Bible says that, “God loves cheerful givers.” Well, so do I. And I want to know that if my wife is submissive to me, that she is being so, not because I’m intimidating her, or brow beating her, but that she is being submissive to me because...SHE LOVES ME!!!!! I don’t do any thing because of intimidation or force - I take care of business - because I WANT TO, I CHOOSE TO, AND I WILL!

But even at this, God still gets the credit, because, “He is working in me , both to will and to DO of His good pleasure”

 

THE VISION OF THE FOUR ‘HORSES’

Visualize with me four different horse-like creatures, each symbolic of one who is to be subordinate. The first is a magnificent winged beauty

- wild and free, standing On the edge of the mountain. Fire comes out from under her feet when she prances,and from her mouth when she speaks. With head and tail held high, her muscles ripple and her mane flies in the wind.

The second creature is the same as the first, except that she has been captured and caged, and her spirit has been broken. She sprawls sadly and stupidly in the middle of the corral, her crown taken and her wings broken. Her back is sagging and her head, Inane and tail hang down; her eyes are blinded and the fire is out.

The third creature is like the first and second, captured and caged, but she refuses to be submissive or subordinate, co-operative or willing. This creature is rebellious and stubborn, brawling and contentious, using her fire and feet destructively. She is good for nothing but to be turned loose or shot, the symbol of rebellion.

The final creature is identical to the first in every way, except that she is proudly pulling the chariot of God the King. She was in the corral for a moment. But she eagerly wanted to co-operate and be a part of things, no longer lonely or alone. She exchanged one kind of freedom for another and has no regrets. She still has her wings, her sight, her zeal, her fire and her effervescence. She is moving the direction the rider wants her to go before be is firmly settled in the saddle. All who see her wonder at the One with whom she is associated.

-The first creature is a picture of UNTESTED SUBMISSION. There are those who have had the good sense to come out, but don’t have enough sense to come in and be “set in to the Body of Christ as it pleases Him”! They have ‘not known the test of the desert, the crucible, or the cross (or the resurrection!), so they have not yet passed the test. They have not known the fire that purifies the gold, so they have not yet come forth as gold.

Jesus said that His yoke is easy and that His burden is light -so there IS a yoke, and there IS a burden that we are called to bear. Jesus said that unless a person is willing to take up his cross daily and follow Him, that he is not worthy of Him. People who are unwilling to “shoulder the load” involved with walking with God won’t walk with Him, and a man or woman who is unwilling to “shoulder the responsibility-privileges and liberating-limitations of marriage”, should not get married! Like the song goes, “Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free!” or, as Jesus says, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone - - -“ or “He (or she) that loses his (or her) life for My sake, shall find it!”

-The second is a picture of PLOW-HORSE, KILLED SPIRITED SUBMISSION, PASSIVE & BLIND. Her creativity, initiative and motivation are gone. She has been psychically emasculated and disemboweled, yet she lives. The Bible says, “Let no man take thy crown,” Someone else said, “If you do, they will!” Bible says, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set you free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.” Revelation 18 speaks unkindly about those who possess or make merchandise of the “souls of men.” (or woman!)

-The third creature is a type of REBELLION. She is stubborn and un-cooperative. It is the ‘tM maid’ of the pop-corn pot, the “grain of wheat” that ~‘refuses to fall into the ground and die.” God says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee...” I Samuel 16:23

- The fourth creature is a type of AGGRESSIVE CREATIVE BUOYANT EFFERVESCENT

DYNAMIC MAJESTIC OVERFLOWING MAGNIFICENT SUBMISSION!

TIMBUCK & PODUNK

or

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOSET

 

Look at this illustration if you will. Suppose there is husband and wife who are each seeking the Lord in their respective prayer closets. While they are praying, let’s say that the Lord simultaneously speaks to both of them an opposite thing, telling the husband, “Thou shalt move with thy family to Podunk.” But to the wife the Lord says, “Thou shalt move with thy family to Timbuck”! First of all, could such a thing be? Anyway, back to the closet, let’s say this is what happens, and that when it happens, they both get excited that God spoke to them and that they can’t wait to tell their spouse the news. The closet doors burst open and they come running into each other’s arms and say to each other, “God spoke to me!” So ‘macho man’ speaks first. He forgot the lady is supposed to go first. “God spoke to me that we are to move to Podunk, let’s pack our bags!”

Suppose she is like rebellious creature # 3 above. PLEASE NOTE: There is no association between a wife and a horse intended, as we are likening these creatures to all subordinates in any subordinate- authority relationship such as student-teacher, employee-employer, child-parent, people-pastor, wife - husband, man-God kinds of relationships. But if the wife is like the rebellious creature, her response to her husband will be, “Heck no, I won’t go!” If she is like # 2 creature, her response will be, “O.K.

Anything you say. Just hit me with a stick, and we’ll be on our way.” There are many groups that really do believe this dead submission is the same as that taught in the New Testament. Some people actually think, or try to get others to think that this is the kind of submission that they are to have toward the elders or pastor, or that the wife’s submission to her husband should be this kind of Second Creature-Passive, killed-spirit, plow-horse submission without question, objection or opposition. But, this passive kind of blind submission is never ever EVER taught in the Word of God!!!

In this Podunk-Timbuck illustration, suppose the wife is like the effervescent creation. She will perhaps quietly say, “And now darling, please let me share with you what I believe the Lord has shown me.” The “plow-horse” would have been thinking, “I must be submissive to my husband, it’s his job to get the revelation, and mine to follow, his to command, mine to blindly obey. Therefore, I must not say anything, but just meekly do.” The line of teaching here is that “if the husband is wrong God will make everything o.k. and will vindicate the wife without her saying anything.” But this is wrong thinking, wrong doing and wrong teaching. In other words, plow-horse submission is WRONG!

One fellow, a friend of mine, was actually heard to remark, “You know, it was actually a revelation to me that my wife had been given to me by God to be more than a cleaner of my dirty house, (floors, bathrooms,) my dirty dishes, my dirty clothes, my dirty kids,” (some men could add, “and my dirty dog”)!!! “It was new to me the thought that God had also given her to me to be a help to me in wise counsel and the things of the Holy Spirit!!!”

(We also recommend the book by Charles Trombley, Who Said Women Can’t Teach available for $24.00 - 305 pqges Find on Amazon or by writing to us at Great Commission Ministries.)

So, to the extent that the wife is aggressively submissive, she will see that it is her obligation and privilege to share what God is revealing to her about the matter. But suppose the husband is a macho, arrogant, demanding, domineering, belligerent bully! (These qualities all too well also describe too many people in positions of authority). Suppose he responds by saying, “Look, woman, I’m the boss. You ‘p08’ do what I say! Now get to packing!” (Would you blame her if she did?)

But instead, she is aggressively submissive and insists on the right to share, and thus she shares, “Sweetheart, I will go pack, and with a right spirit, but first let me say that if you persist in your stubbornness, that God Himself will spank or judge you. Since I don’t really want to see this happen, I plead with you to listen to what well may be the voice of the Lord speaking through me!”

Assume for a moment that he listens to his wife and is even willing to go back into the prayer closet before the Lord. In the closet, God speaks to him one of the following things:

1. “Husband, you are right. In fact, you are both right! I gave to the more practical of you the name of the place to which you will be moving first, and I gave to the more visionary of you the name of the place where you will eventually go in the fulfillment of My plan for you.”

2. Or, God may say, (husbands, really try to use your imagination here,) “You are wrong and your wife is You had the number of syllables in the name of the town correct, the reason for the move, the right direction, and proper timing. But, because you once knew a town by that name and not the name of the other, you incorrectly assumed...!”

So, we see that any one of the following combinations may have been possible:

1. Podunk first, move to Timbuck (Both are right.)
2. Timbuck first, move to Podunk (Both are right.)
3. Podunk only, (Husband is right, wife is )
4. Timbuck only, (Wife is right, husband )
5. Neither, (Both were mistaken).

But suppose the husband is steadfastly stubborn, arrogantly demanding, and pompously belligerent, (God forbid!). Says the tyrant, “Hey stupid, you pack our bags for Podunk ‘fore I hit you up long side your head!” If she then keeps a right spirit, God will do one of the following things

1. God will change the husband for her
2. God will change the circumstances for her
3. God may, if the husband continues his tyrannical stupidity, kill the husband and replace him with a man who will do the will of God!!! The story of Abigail and Nabal in I Samuel 25 is a classic example of this last point. God doesn’t believe in divorce, but He sure has allowed a lot of people to be killed who stand in the way of His Plan, Will and Purpose. Are you willing to pray this prayer? Please do!

“Dear Lord God Awesome Judge of all the Universe, Please get glory to Yourself from my life, as much as Is supernaturally possible. And if You can ‘t get glory from my life, please change me so that You can! And if You can’t change me Lord, then please kill me, and raise up someone else that You can get glory from!

“But I WILL co-operate with You Lord, I will allow You to work within me both to will and to do of Your good pleasure I know that if You are My LIFE that I

can be the best spouse that ever lived, because You are on location within Me, as my Life!!! In Jesus’ Name.

Amen”

 

REVIEW QUESTIONS - CHAPTER 9

 

1. Is there ever any justification for intimidation?

2. Does the Bible teach that the man is superior to the woman, in terms of worth, or value in His sight?

3.- 6. List the four horse-like creatures, and tell what they represent.

7. Do you think that it is possible for God to tell the husband and the wife opposite plans at the same time?

8. Complete this Kingdom Principle: “We must always be submissive to ..., even if

but we must never be submissive to, or even if

9. Complete this Kingdom Principle: “A love relationship presupposes the necessity of 2’

10. Complete this Kingdom Principle: “Intimidation and cannot co-exist!”
11. Do you count your spouse as better than yourself?

12. According to Titus 2:4, what is God’s way for a woman to learn how to be a wife?