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THE PURPOSE AND POWER OF LOVE & MARRIAGE: CHAPTER FOUR

    • Moderator
    • 867 posts
    July 22, 2017 8:07 AM CEST
    Everyone should have a garden wedding.

    The world’s first wedding took place in the Garden of Eden. There God ordained and sanctified the marriage of the man and woman whom He had created. The only place to experience God’s marriage is “inside the garden.” Any marriage “outside the garden” is not God’s marriage. Inside the garden Adam and Eve enjoy mutual love, respect, and equality; outside the garden they make excuses, blame each other, and lie to God about each other. Inside the garden they share the same spirit, the Spirit of God; outside the garden that Spirit has departed and they are like strangers to each other. Inside the garden they are united in spirit and in flesh; outside the garden all they have is flesh.
    God’s standard of marriage is based on the garden’s qualification. No one can truthfully claim that God has joined them who do not come to the marriage altar in the context of the garden. Because it is designed for believers, true marriage is not a union of spirits as much as a union of flesh.

    Every day, thousands of couples around the world get married assuming that God has joined them together. In most cases this simply is not true because they have not married within the garden context. They do not share the same spirit because either one or both of them have never been born again of the Spirit of God. Because of this, they have no guarantee of success, no safeguard against the destructive forces that would pull them apart.
    According to God’s original design, man and woman were to exercise equal authority and equal dominion. In God’s design, headship in marriage is the man’s responsibility. Headship is not rulership; it is leadership. The man’s headship is based on knowledge and primarily involves teaching and instructing his family in the ways of God and all spiritual matters in general.
    Marriage “outside the garden” is the marriage of blame, irresponsible activity, transferring and passing the buck, and men failing to take their rightful and responsible place as head of the home. As head of the family, the husband leads the family, not as a tyrant or dictator, but with love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge under the lordship of Christ.