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

Thursday evening Charlyne will be in Tulsa to minister at Covenant Keepers annual conference. As part of that, our new book, "Looking Back 25 Years" will be dedicated to our Lord God who has made another book possible. As soon as that happens, we will have the new book available in the Stop Divorce Bookstore. Today Bob shares a chapter from the new book with you.

When God Speaks

"Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" Isaiah 30:20-21

In today's mail we received a letter from a female stander I will call Sally. With her permission, I want to share what she told us in that letter. Although Sally lives many states away from us, Charlyne and I have been with her at conferences several times down through the years. Yes, Sally is a long time stander. She heard from God and will not give up on what He has promised her. Sally is one of those standers that anyone would do well to emulate. She is one of the happiest and most faith- filled people that God has allowed Charlyne and me to meet.

The husband lives with another woman some distance from Sally's community. Recently she heard that her husband had undergone surgery. While praying for his recovery, God distinctly spoke to Sally and told her to deliver a fruit basket to her husband. After confirmation through prayer that she was hearing from God, Sally prepared a fruit basket and set out to drive to her husband's community.

Sally wrote that she had approached the front door of her husband's home prepared to leave the fruit basket sitting there for him. When Sally knocked on the door, the other woman answered and invited Sally inside. Her letter related of an extended visit with her husband and the other woman. Sally and her husband talked about family members and events from the past. About all the other woman could add to the conversation were comments about the fruit basket. Since the visit, Sally has heard about her husband visiting his children and grandchildren and speaking of the beautiful time he had talking with his wife. To God be the glory for this dear stander who never gave up on what God called her to do.

Do you recall the television commercials that the stock brokerage company E.F. Hutton once ran? The scene would be a crowded and noisy restaurant or theater. Two people would be talking and one would quietly mention the name, and everyone in that busy place of business would be silent so they could hear what E.F. Hutton had said. At the end of the commercial the announcer would add, "When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen."

It used to be that way with God's voice, regardless of the means He was using to speak to us. It is sad that times have changed to the extent that today, often when God speaks, the noise of the world continues right on. One of the lessons that Charlyne and I have learned, starting on the day of remarriage, right through the birth of this Ministry and continuing right through to this day, is that God does speak to each of us privately and individually. The problem seems to be that many of us do not know how to listen for His quiet voice.

Seldom does a day pass that the Ministry does not receive at least one email from a stander who is amazed at the confirmation he or she has just received that day that they had indeed heard from God. These excite us because each one represents a stander who has grown one step closer to marriage restoration God's way. After a person learns how they can listen to God, they depend on Him more and more for their direction. When this happens, they can depend on people less and less. I know without a doubt that I would rather depend on God than depend on people, if I had to make a choice between the two.

There is a common English word that may better help you understand the process of God speaking to an individual and that person obeying. That is the word gumption, or often shortened to "umption" on front porches back in Kentucky, where I came from.

The dictionary attempts to define gumption as common sense, initiative or get-up-and go. (How we pray that prodigals would get-up-and-go- home!)

I would define gumption as having the ability to discern right from wrong, and the nerve to do what an individual knows is right, even when it requires some effort.

Please excuse me for using a word that is almost slang in dealing with one of the most holy topics anyone could ever write about, hearing from God. I pray that someone who has the word gumption in their vocabulary can better understand our discussion on hearing from God.

A portion of Charlyne's teaching for the past 20 years has dealt with not only praying to God, but also our being able to hear from God. Out of the hundreds of audio teachings that Charlyne has done, one of the most popular was "God Does Speak." Everyone, stander or not, wants to be able to hear from God. That is not something reserved exclusively for the clergy but is a gift that God wants each of us to receive from Him.

All standers pray, or at least if they are a serious stander they are praying to our Lord God on a regular basis, hopefully several times a day. Can you imagine calling your best friend on the phone several times a day, relating all that is happening in your life, as well as your needs, yet never hearing a word from that other person? That is not the relationship that God desires to have with each of His children.

An important part of learning to hear from God is being able to discern His voice from the voice of Satan. Both desire to speak to you, one to bring about good in your life and in your marriage, and the other to bring continued turmoil and confusion. In the illustration of Sally and the fruit basket for her husband, please note that Sally did not simply feel that she had heard from God and carried out what she thought He had told her under her own power. Knowing her, I am certain that Sally made this a real matter of prayer and not until God had confirmed to her that it was His will did she proceed with the project.

Just imagine the chaos that Satan could have caused if Sally had been hearing Satan's voice instead of God's. At the very minimum she would have made a trip to her husband's community for naught. On the other end of the scale of possibilities could have been a confrontation with the other person, anger from her husband and, if carried to the extreme, could have resulted in the police becoming involved.

The two events in this Ministry that Charlyne and I rejoice and praise the Lord for the most are when a marriage is genuinely restored by Jesus and when a stander or their prodigal, or anyone else for that matter, comes into a personal relationship with Jesus, trusting Him to forgive their sins by His death on the Cross. The event in close third place would be when a stander is helped to learn how to hear God's voice.

Why is knowing and hearing God's voice so critical in marriage restoration? Every stander desires that God speak to their prodigal. God may be speaking to your prodigal this very day, but your beloved does not know how to hear God, or else they would be busy making plans to come home. Just as God clearly directed Sally, you need to know how to hear from God so that you can carry out His plans for your marriage and family, not only during the current crisis but for all of your future days. You also need to know how to hear from God so that you can teach your children, grandchildren and new Christians.

God spoke to me from practically the moment I drove away from home, but I did not know how to discern His voice from the enemy's. I knew that it wasn't God telling me it was all right to walk out on my family, especially in light of what I had planned. Some voice was giving affirmation to what I wanted to do, but I did not know that Satan also had a voice, even though I thought I was a Christian, had walked down the aisle at church, been baptized and all the rest.

My purpose here is not to teach you to hear from God, but to remind you of the importance of becoming a spiritual "E.F. Hutton" so that you will be ready to hear everything the Lord has to say. Please also continue to pray that your prodigal will listen to God, too.

Blessings,
Bob Steinkamp
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
Post Office Box 10548
Pompano Beach, FL 33061 USA
http://rejoiceministries.org 

You can read the details about "Looking Back 25 Years" when you visit -

http://rejoiceministries.org/r.php?num=5ifk1 

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.