A4P Guest: I’ve been married for the last four years now. We have a 2 year old daughter and a one year old son. God and the things of God have a special place in my heart. And I know that God called me to a ministry, to get involved in counseling and leading the prayer group in our church. However it is getting very hard for me to attend church programs and prayer meetings because my kids cry a lot whenever I go out of the house and my husband doesn’t want me to get involved in any church ministry. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26 – and last week, I meditated this Bible verse for the whole day and decided to go to church for a prayer meeting, even if my kids were crying and my husband was pouting. When I got there, the pastor asked me to lead the prayer meeting and everybody was blessed beyond measure. So that night I realized that it was the devil who was behind all these; trying to keep me away from my call. Please tell me how I can fight the devil.A4P: Oh, how I love to address this kind of question! Praise the LORD!
My dearest I’m not sure about your spiritual call, a call to counsel and lead a prayer meeting, but I’m 100% sure that God called to be a wife to your husband and a mother to your little kids. What an honorable call! There is no better call than that!
No, it is not the devil who is keeping you away from your call; rather it is the Holy Spirit who is trying to advise you to stick with the two most important “ministries” God called you to; wife-hood and motherhood!
I call “the devil work” where you felt like everybody was blessed beyond measure! Oh, my dear, the most important people who should be blessed by your ministry are your husband and your two little kids. If they are not blessed by you and your ministry, please stay in your home!
You cannot be a blessing to anyone after neglecting your husband and kids! I will say this again, you CANNOT be a blessing to anyone after you neglect your husband and kids! You can jump up and down in your church, getting involved in different ministries, acting like you are a blessing for many but before God, you are neither a blessing to anyone nor to yourself!
If indeed God calls you to a ministry, you sure will come to the ministry at the right time. I’m telling you with certainty that now is not the time for you to get involved in any ministry! Make your role of wife-hood and motherhood your number one call you need to fulfill first. Then if there is anything left from them, if they say to you, “Now you can go; we saw God in you, we saw the Holy Spirit in you, we can’t keep you here with us,” you come out and be a blessing to others.
Those two calls are the ones to determine whether you are called to a ministry or not! Wife-hood and motherhood are the two calls which equip you to another ministry; not the other way around.
My dear, unless your husband approves your call, stay in your home! He is the head of you. God is the one who made him the head. And God doesn’t work against Himself. The head of the house has to okay your call before you find yourself in a ministry. Otherwise while you think you are a blessing for many, you will be a curse to your children and grandchildren and the rest. So, don’t make that mistake. Many did make that mistake and they passed away, inheriting the curse to their children. Don’t follow their example!
The Bible verse you quoted, I think, is one of the Bible verses which is abused and misused in the Christian community. That particular verse Jesus said to imply this (my interpretation of that verse): If the mother you love dearly doesn’t want you to follow Me, follow Me regardless of her want and desire. If your father, the one who worked hard to raise you doesn’t want you to follow Me, follow Me regardless of his want and desire. If your siblings you love very much don’t want you to follow Me, follow Me regardless. If your flesh tells you not to follow me, deny yourself and follow Me. Unless you love Me to the point of being alone, by yourself, without anyone besides you to agree with you to follow Me, You can’t be My disciple.”
Your husband and kids are not asking you to deny your God but they are asking you to continue believing, serving, loving and following your God by taking up your cross of wife-hood and motherhood.
The Bible says, “If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?” 1 Timothy 3:5
You are serving and ministering THE WHOLE WORLD by being a good suitable wife to your husband and a loving and nurturing mother to your own kids.
At the end of your journey, your husband and children will say this to you:
“Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”” Proverbs 31:28-29
Wow! That will be like an heavenly song to your ears, soul and spirit! Is there anything better than this? There is none! ///