Charlyne Cares Daily Devotional - Helping Stop Divorce God's Way

Do You Know God's Benefits As A Counselor? (Part 3)

"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. "All this I have spoken while still with you. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and I will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:23-27

This week I have been teaching on God's benefits. God has given you a benefit that is very powerful. As you read the scripture above, do you know and talk to The Counselor, The Holy Spirit in your daily life? Are you walking in faith and victory knowing that your Heavenly Father will give you all the benefits you need to live a daily Christ-like life? Can you imagine that the Wonderful Counselor, (Isaiah 9:6) the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and He will remind you of everything that He has said to you? Wow! We are blessed to be children of God and have such benefits from God.

Do you have questions and need answers? Today my goal is that you will know that you have the greatest Counselor at your side, waiting for your call, twenty-four hours a day. When you listen to family, friends or possibly pastors they may speak their own opinions and cast judgment on your spouse. Your Counselor, the Holy Spirit, has been sent to provide you wisdom, knowledge, understanding, insight and peace in the midst of the storms of your marriage falling apart. The Holy Spirit will speak answers and instructions to you, just keep asking and waiting for His answer.

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Ephesians 3:16-17

I personally did not understand the power of the Holy Spirit when I was seeking God's will when I felt I had reached the end of my rope with Bob. I was ready to file for divorce. I did not understand how taking polls and surveys was only causing me more confusion to my mind. I should have been seeking the Lord and waiting for His divine answer, as I read the Bible and studied all the scriptures about marriage. I should have prayed asking and believing for the Lord to speak to my heart about what I should do about our marriage problems. Instead, I responded to Bob's unfaithfulness as anyone else would in the world today, I divorced Bob due to his adultery. Who are you listening to, the world or are you seeking the Word and asking the Holy Spirit for His divine answers?

But God, gave me a second chance to listen to His will and way. I then surrendered my life and marriage to my Lord. I found out that the Holy Spirit was my greatest Counselor and through His Word He had answers for me personally.

"Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:97-105

After my divorce, I learned what it felt like to be in disobedience to my Lord. I was heartbroken and in despair for our children and the future. I had failed as a wife to meet my husband's needs and felt that I failed as a Christian by not knowing how to fight for my marriage. The Lord encouraged me to seek Him more than anyone else during those dark days in my life. Before, I was always talking on the telephone telling someone about all my husband's circumstances. But God heard my groanings and saw the tears of a broken woman who wanted to do it His way, if only I knew what that was! Is that how you feel today?

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:15-18

Have you started to seek the most Wonderful Counselor who knows what is best for you and your family? God allows you to go through trials and tribulations to keep you humble and become dependent on Him alone. Our Lord wants a personal, intimate relationship with you more than anything else. He wants you to forsake your own selfish ways and seek His will and way.

My own decisions and ways were not my Lord's way as I found out a few weeks later. As I went to church, I heard a restored couple share the power of prayer and how the Lord touched and delivered the husband from the bondages of alcohol, drugs and adultery as the wife sought the greatest Counselor, the Holy Spirit. That day I recommitted my whole life and marriage to my Lord. I surrendered my heart, my marriage and life to the Lord and said I would wait forever for my spouse to come to his senses and escape from the trap of the enemy. (2 Timothy 2:26) I believed that my Lord and His mighty power could unscramble the mess that Bob and I had made due to my lack of knowledge and Bob's bad, sinful choices. My life turned into a life of growing in the Lord and believing in the power of prayer. Do you pray as much as you did when your marriage fell apart?

"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:6-11

Twenty-four years ago, I never would have believed how God would use our testimony of a restored marriage in the future. Our Lord will also use you and your spouse's testimony in the future to help others.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort." 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit "another Counselor." The word "Counselor" in the Greek means, Counselor, Strengthener, Comforter, Helper, Advisor, Advocate, Intercessor, Ally and Friend. Wow! May we be encouraged today by the One the Lord left with us, The Holy Spirit, Wonderful Counselor, who is our indwelling helper and intercessor on earth!

Who is your Counselor right now? Today ask the Holy Spirit to become your Counselor in your life every day. Ask Him to speak to you loudly, so that you can learn His soft voice. Ask Him questions, writing them down, so you can then also write down the answers.

This weekend may you seek the Holy Spirit to be your Counselor, wanting to know and do His will and ways in your life and marriage. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal areas in your heart that need to be changed. Allow the Holy Spirit to do open heart surgery, removing all that is not of Him in your heart and then He will pour on you the spirit of forgiveness and agape love which will bind and heal your heart completely.

God bless,
Charlyne Steinkamp
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
Post Office Box 10548
Pompano Beach, FL 33061 USA
http://rejoiceministries.org  (Ministry web site)
http://rejoiceministries.org/r.php?num=tizwl  (Bookstore)
http://rejoiceministries.org/r.php?num=1qrwh  (Radio 24/7)

Devotional Copyright© 2010 Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.

Scripture quoted by permission and are from the Holy Bible; New International Version® Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.