Hi, Pastor John;
I have been meditating on “God’s order” again, what the Spirit taught me in my early thirties, especially after my visits with some saints recently whose homes are out of order. It felt good to go over these things again,
Billy
God’s Order
(Concerning Families)
In the early 1980s, I was married and had two small boys. As I was driving to work at 5:30 AM to Louisville, KY from Crestwood KY on Highway 22 (about a 30-mile drive), the Spirit of God asked me a question, “Whose name did your wife take when you were married, yours or hers?” I replied to the question, “Mine, Lord, she became a Mellick and I did not become a Williams.”
Then, another question followed the first one, “Was Adam created from Eve, or was Eve created from Adam?” Again, I answered, “Eve was created from Adam’s rib.”
Genesis 2: 20-25
- So, the man gave names to all the beasts and creatures that fly in the sky, and to all the animals of the field, but as for the man, He found no helper fit for him.
- And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. Then He took one of his ribs, and He closed up the flesh in its place.
- And Jehovah God made the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman. And He brought her to the man.
- And the man said, “This one, at last, is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This one shall be called ‘woman’ because she was taken out of man.”
- For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
- And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.
After the two questions that the Spirit asked me, the Lord opened my understanding about His creation order concerning a man and a woman that He himself joined together to be a “husband and his wife”; to be “one flesh” unto God. If there are troubles between the husband and God, the husband and Jesus, the husband and his pastor, the husband and his wife, or the husband and his children, there is an issue with one or more of this order of God. And, if there is trouble with one, there will be troubles with them all. God’s order is not “pick-and-choose” what you will or what you like. It is all or nothing. The husband is responsible to maintain this order in his family. Then, if families have order within themselves, they will have fellowship with God and each other, and from family-to-family. There were troubles in my house and the Lord was showing me through His Spirit how to get my house in order and have peace and contentment, if I would humbly believe and obey what the Spirit was telling me to be the head and spiritual leader in my home. Living in this order is as simple as breathing. God’s order works!
Here is the order and understanding that Jesus gave me while I was driving to work that day.
God
- But without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He (God) exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Jesus (The only begotten of the Father)
1. In the beginning, the Word was there, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- He was in the beginning with God.
- All things were created through him, and without him was nothing created that was created.
- In him was life, and the life was the light of men,
5.and the light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5)
A (Godly) Pastor
- And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will feed you knowledge and understanding. (Jeremiah 3:15).
. . .
- And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers
- for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for edification of the body of Christ
- until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the true knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ,
- so that we no longer be children, tossed by waves and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, by the cunning of deceitful contrivances. (Ephesians 4:11-14)
Husband
- Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. (Colossians 3:19)
. . .
- Husbands, love your own wives, just as Christ loved the Assembly and gave himself up for it, (Ephesians 5:25)
7. Furthermore, you husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman as to a weaker vessel, and as heirs together of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (I Peter 3:7)
. . .
- Men ought thus to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself,
- for no one has ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord does the Assembly of God,
- seeing we are members of his body, of his flesh and his bones.
- “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one body.”
- This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the Assembly of God.
- In any case, let each man among you love his wife as he loves himself. And let the wife reverence her husband. (Ephesians 5: 28-33)
Wife
- Men ought thus to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself,
29. for no one has ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord does the Assembly of God,
30. seeing we are members of his body, of his flesh and his bones.
- “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and and they two shall be one body.
- This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the Assembly of God.
- In any case, let each man among you love his wife as he loves himself. And let the wife reverence her husband. (Ephesians 5:22-24)
18. Wives, be submissive to your own husbands, as is appropriate in the Lord. (Colossians 3:18)
- Their wives, likewise, must be worthy of respect, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.
(I Timothy 3:11)
- Also, you wives, be subject to your husbands so that, should any disobey the word, they might be won over, without a word, by the conduct of the wives
- when they observe your pure conduct coupled with fear.
- Let your adornment not be outward — the braiding of hair, and wearing of gold, or putting on of clothing-:
- rather, let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
- For this is how holy women who adorned themselves in times past also hoped in God, being in subjection to their husbands.
- as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him “lord”, whose children you are, if you do good and do not Fear any terror. (I Peter 3:1-6)
Children
2. Honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long upon the land that Jehovah
Your God is giving you. (Exodus 20: 12)
- Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. (Psalm 128- 3)
. . .
- Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)
1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
- “Honor your father and mother [which is the first commandment with a promise]
- so that it might go well with you, and you might live long in the land.”
- And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and Instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1-4)
- He who spares his rod hates his son, but he loves him who diligently chastens him. (Proverbs 13:24)
- Children’s children [are] the crown of old men; and the glory of children [are] their fathers. (Proverbs 17:6)
Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work [be] pure, and whether [it be] right (Proverbs 20:11)
But when Jesus saw [it], he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:14)
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left [to himself] bringeth his mother to shame. (Proverbs 29:15)
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. (Luke 17:2)
Furthermore:
(Hebrews 12: 1-29)
- Therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses about us, and laying aside every weight, and the sin that so easily besets us, let us also run with patience the race that is laid out before us,
2. fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured a cross, despised the disgrace, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- Consider him who endured such hostility of sinners against himself, lest you grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
- For you have not yet resisted to the death, striving against sin,
5. and you have forgotten the exhortation which instructs you as sons: “My son, do not lightly esteem the Lord’s correction; neither be discouraged by His reproof,
6. for whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
- If you endure chastisement, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
- But if you are without chastisement, of which all have been partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.
- Furthermore, we certainly have had fathers of our flesh who chastened us, and we reverenced them. Shall we not much rather submit ourselves to the Father of spirits, and live?
- They, for just a short time, disciplined us as it pleased them; but He, for our benefit, that we might partake of His holiness.
- Now, no discipline, for just that moment, seems joyous, but grievous; however, it afterwards yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness in those who have been trained by it.
- Wherefore, “Straighten up the listless hands and the feeble knees,”
13. and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned aside, but let it rather be healed.
- Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, without which no man will see the Lord,
15. taking care, that no one come short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble (and by this many be defiled),
16. that no one be licentious, or be profane like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
- For you know that even afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, even though he earnestly sought it with tears.
18. For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, with blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and raging storm,
19. and trumpet blast, and a voice speaking, which voice was such that those who heard it begged that nothing more be said to them,
20. for they could not endure that which was commanded: “If even an animal touch the mountain, it shall be stoned”;
21. indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”
- But you have come to Mount Zion, and the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
- to the festival and Assembly of the first-born whose names are recorded in heaven, and to God, Judge of all, and to spirits of righteous people made perfect,
24. and to a mediator of a new covenant, Jesus, and to sprinkled blood, which speaks better things than that of Abel.
- Beware that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape when they refused the one on earth who instructed them, much less shall we escape who turn away from the One who speaks from heaven,
26. whose voice then shook the earth, but now, He has promised, saying, “Yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”
- Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of the things which are shaken, that is, things which are made, so that things which are not shaken may remain.
- Wherefore, receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us show gratitude, by which, with reverence and fear of God, we serve God acceptably,
29. for our God is a consuming fire.
May God help us all,
Brother, Billy Mellick