Woman! You will want to be his master, but he will be yours!

Woman! You will want to be his master, but he will be yours!

The family dynamics have changed over the last thirty years. Women have left the home life and entered the workforce. Child care programs have skyrocketed since the 1970's. The equality movement between the sexes in America has peaked. Men have seen dramatic changes in the role of women in the home and the workforce. Is this God's best for the family structure?

I am no critic of the women's liberation movement, but I am totally for restoring the family structure for the purpose of raising healthy children. So, I will expound on the traditional family roles that is God's best as in Genesis 3.

In the creation account, God created male and female. One of the major purposes of the male and female was to reproduce after its kind. God allowed Adam to see Him create male and female animals and understand their purpose before He gave Adam, Eve. All the animals had opposites, the male carried the seed and the female the egg. Each of the sexes were purposed to mate and create new life.

Evil had a conspiracy to reduce God's best for mankind to non existence. The overall plan took effect when Eve was approached in the garden of Eden by the Serpent. He challenged her to do what God said not to do; she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and feed Adam too. Together, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were no longer connected to Him. Immediately, they became servants of Sin.

God deals with the first couple and evil with punishment. As with the natural order of physical brokenness, there is pain. Pain brings a feeling of discomfort. The pain reminds us that something is wrong that needs fixing. The pain, the unwanted feeling, teaches us that we must correct our actions to avoid repeating the feeling. As a child, I continued to put my hand toward the hot stove until I was burned. That hurt! I learned that fire is hot. I have not put my hand too close to the fire ever again.

In Genesis 3, pain is the punishment for all three parties involved in the garden of Eden. Man, Woman, and the Serpent were punished for disobedience to God. We still see the effects of the fall of mankind in the garden of Eden.

The key themes in Genesis 3 sets the tone for humanity's role throughout life in the earth. God does not change His mind, neither does He change the order of creation. Man still carries the seed, woman still has the womb, sin still exists, and humanity continues to experience pain. So what does all this mean?

As a Christian, we must accept the natural order of things as God's best and see the spiritual order as God's law for eternity. The focus here is on the natural order. The family is most important to consider because it is the breeding ground of humanity as we know it today.

Woman experience pain when she brings forth life. A man experiences pain when he works to sustain life. Both experience pain as a result of the curse in Genesis 3.

Sin desires to control humanity. Woman desires to control her husband. God tells Cain that sin wants to rule but he must take control. God tells the woman that she wants to control her husband, but he will rule over her. I discuss this in detail in "Before I Say I Do".  Adam takes his authority over the woman when he names her "Eve".  Through Christ, we have authority over Sin! Even though the physical effects remain, we have already beat Sin through the effects of the cross. This is done first in the spirit and will transfer in the physical in the resurrection of humanity later.

Today, the family's focus is to raise children in recognition of God's best. We have a lot of dysfunctional families and broken homes in society.  What would a functional family look like? Let us examine a family through the lens of Gods best.

The man is the head of the family. The woman is his helpmeet. The children are to be raised up with a clear view of these roles. A woman must respect her husband's authority as headship. Sarah called Abraham her lord. This is in unison of the doctrine of male headship.

The Apostle Paul teaches that the man must love his wife as himself. Therefore, he treats her with a peculiar love. A love that shows! Love is explained in 1 Cor 14:4 as being patient, kind, not envious or boastful, not arrogant. Using the terms of the apostle towards mans love with his wife, he rules with love and not with iron. Another explanation of this relationship compares his role as Christ's role in the church.

The church is considered the bride of Christ. Man is to rule over his bride in the same manner as Christ with the church. Both Christ and the husband share similar love for the wife. He treats his wife in a manner that is reflective in daily living. He does not abuse his power. His role is to provide, protect, educate, and maintain his home. Her role is to respect his authority. In the garden, she is noted as wanting to take charge.  While this role has become dominant in today's family, it undermines God's best. Overruling headship brings on a weakness in the family structure and kills that foundation of the family. Members of the body of Christ that undermine Christ are considered thieves and robbers who will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven. If God makes it clear about those professing to be followers of Christ but not accepting his Lordship as reprobates, then certainly a wife not in subjection to her husband is hurting the foundation of her family.

To be frank, men have become weak because their fathers have been denied headship in their households. A woman says she wants a husband, but she must be willing to accept her role as a wife. Roles are meant to define order in any environment. In the family, husband and wife must work together as one; just as the father, son, and spirit relationship as well as Christ and the church.

Sick and a Saint: Is this right?

I counseled with her after 11 years of kidney failure and she has gotten worse. There are many Christians that have become ill after service to the Lord and have not grown better. In those cases, after the saints have fasted and prayed, faith has been upheld for some time, why haven't they condition bettered?

In  years of ministry and facing my own afflictions, I found that each condition a person has is conditional and therefore must be handled individually. There is healing in Jesus' name. There is forgiveness of Sin in Jesus' blood. There is power to rebuke any presenting conditions that sick saints may face. Why are they not being healed?

First, God honors a man's true heart. As Christians, we must honor God back by simply believing the Gospel message. Jesus always told the disciples, "I have you not ignorant...". Ignorance is the main culprit to not accepting the healing power of God.

Second, a Christian must fix their heart with God. To believe in the Gospel is the first step to beating sickness. The apostles taught, "repent and believe the Gospel". The Gospel is the good news of Jesus' work of salvation. Through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, we have the power to be healed. Some teach that the 39 lashes Jesus took with the beating of the whip, ripped open his flesh, was paying for our Sin. He had no Sin in Him. The cross is where He laid down His life for us to be re-united with God. The grave was purposed to remove the power of Death. His resurrection was God sponsored and gave Him all power.

Third, a sick Christian must believe this to be true. All God wants mankind to do is believe that He made it possible for us to be whole again. Once we believe that in our heart, then God comes upon our human flesh and restore it to completeness again. "Only Believe" is what God says for you to do. He does the rest.

Let me tell you that to believe is not an act of head faith but heart faith. To understand heart faith, one must study God's word and accept it at face value. You need a good teacher on the healing subject. One must act upon the healing by correct confession. Your thinking has to be in total agreement with God. You must correct anyone speaking on behalf of the sickness that is presenting to you. You must act as if the sickness is not there, speaking to it by cancellation.

Finally, think about this my brethren! An old man was searching the Internet in his home office when he heard a knock on the front door. He stood on his feet and went to the door. He looked through the peephole and saw it was a delivery man. He opened the door and the delivery guy said, "its a delivery for you sir, please sign". The old man looked at the package and told the delivery man, "I didn't order anything like this, I won't accept it". The delivery man said, "sir, it has your name and address, please sign here". The old man said, "I refuse, return it to the sender". As he said that, the delivery man wrote on the package, refused, return to sender and he left the old man standing at the door.

We have to learn how to use God's word to refuse sickness and disease by returning it back to the sender. It takes your faith in the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to do it and the power of God to come upon your flesh to make the repairs. Only believe!

For some people, healing is instantly. For others healing is progressive. In all cases of healing, it is declared miraculous. Healing comes from the Father, through His Holy Spirit, by the power of the blood of Jesus. I declare you healed right now. Amen

Now DO THIS!

Truly I am,

Apostle Lockley 

Go back to where the enemy fought you the hardest!

Christian soldiers! Go back to the area of strongest resistance! In warfare, the enemy has a stronghold on the area he wishes to keep you out of. You will know when you reached this place because you will experience massive attacks ( when it rains it pours or everything but the kitchen sink). Contact me so I may counsel and pray with you while you go through these attacks.  Your objective is to kill the enemy and enjoy the spoils.

 Happy Combat,

Apostle Lockley

Men ought to always pray!

Wake up men, Pray!

In Christian doctrine, God is recorded as creating male before the female. God makes the world livable through a serious of stages mentioned in the book of Genesis, then He forms man. The story emphasizes how he made man and gave him dominion and power over everything in the earth realm. This is exhibited by man, known as Adam, giving a name to every creature God created and brought before him.

God is recorded in Genesis as putting man in a deep sleep and extracting one of his bones (ribs) from his side and creating the woman, Eve. Eve represented the completeness of Adam. Her strength was Adam’s weakness. Together, the couple had perfection in sustaining their earthly throne.

Man was created to rule whatever he declares his domain. Therefore, his wife, children, and home belongs to him. He is to rule over them with love and not a rod. Because he loves what is his, he provides and protects them. It is his love that dictates his power over them. His love is also steered into play by his connection to the Father. God, in return, shares in man’s responsibility to rule in his domain.

A man who has God, is a man who rules well. Men ought to always pray because without the Godly connection in life, it is easy to be sidetracked with the snares and darts the enemy launches each day. In fact, the enemy is known by the name, accuser of the brethren, because he reports to God all the sinful acts and desires that man indulges in. The accuser hopes that God will give him permission to destroy that man.

Men ought to always pray because, God sometimes allow the enemy to interfere with our daily living. As a man out of touch with God, the accuser does not need God’s permission, because a backsliding man is already out of God’s covering. The accuser then acts as the devil, to destroy that backsliding man unto death, if he could and sometimes does.

When a man prays, he stands under the protection of God. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, he stands in the blood of Jesus and is seen as perfect in God’s view; God then responds with the Fatherly love that man has for his wife and family. God’s provision to man becomes man’s provision to his household.

Note: A man’s prayer covers his entire generation, and everything he is connected to. (Study the Abraham and Lot story- God did not destroy Lot’s family in Sodom and Gomorrah, even though they were in a backslidden state. He provided a way of escape for them if they really wanted out. God told Abraham his intentions to destroy the cities beforehand, and because of their relationship, saved Lot’s family)

Truly I am,

Apostle Lockley

On the battlefield for Christ and exhausted!

On the battlefield for Christ and exhausted!

John 6:21... and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went

On the battlefield for Christ and exhausted! It is the enemies intention to wear mankind down while striving to live holy. To avoid exhaustion in Christianity, one must focus on playing the right role. 

I fought in the 1991 Gulf War. It was mentally challenging as I dealt with the pressures of life and death. The enemy was launching SCUD missiles all night and day. Our forces were attempting to intercept the missiles in mid-air to avoid his intended targets from being destroyed.  In a camp next to where I lived, the enemy appeared successful as one missile landed untouched. Soldiers died.

Overall, while there was minimal life lost in that war, some soldiers were mentally and physically wounded.  The military offered us some R and R to de-stress and maintain our faculties. This R &R was great and did what it was intended to do and soldiers returned back to duty.

In Christianity, it is not man’s role to physically fight against any circumstances. Man is to watch and pray for enemy movement and then use faith to deal with the circumstances. The Godhead fights the battle and provides protection. He never misses intercepting the enemies missiles  but He just may allow one to come through. Some times what we think we are going through is unfair but in God’s plan it is for your future benefit.

Our human emotion, anger, is a blessing in disguise. Anger (that is under control) is a healthy emotion that moves us to respond with forceful reactions to a circumstance. Some experts say when we get angry, its fight of flight that determine the results of a circumstance.

A man walking down the street faced a nagging dog that barked after him without stopping. The man stopped and told the dog to flee, the dog ignored him and continued barking at him. When the man stomped his foot and screamed flee, the dog retreated and left him alone.

In this scenario  the man used his anger to free him of the annoying dog. On the Christian battlefield we don’t use our anger correctly. We allow the enemy to come against us and hurt us. Instead of using our faith to fight the enemy, we flee giving our opponent the upper hand.

Jesus understands how weak we are at attending to life issues and our faith thereof.  He provides His word for us to grow stronger. When we don’t feed off the Word, then we fail to gain the power to stomp at the enemy and make him flee. Like the disciples in the boat, when Jesus did enter the sinking boat, John’s gospel makes sure to mention that the boat was immediately onshore. The disciples alone, were physically and mentally tired to continue the journey successfully.

Unfortunately, when Jesus allows us rest from circumstances it could mean experiencing a prolonged illness and then recover, it could be moving to a new city, it could be switching careers, forced options or even death. These are just a few things that we may experience. On the other hand, we could get some R and R at a nice resort or comfortable spot and return back with better faculties to deal with our issues. It is all dependent upon God’s will for your life. Sometimes He allows more time and sometimes He permits death, there are no guarantees. One needs to be in right standing with the Godhead at all times. (Repent and believe the gospel)

We can’t blame God for our problems. God is not in the hurting business, Satan is. We have all the tools to guard against the enemies tactics found in the Word. Trusting and believing in the Trinity is what is needed to survive an attack. Use your anger about the situation you are experiencing to trigger a Godly response to deal with it. (If a man lacks wisdom, ask God)

Fight the good fight of faith to overcome the enemy. Use your anger as a tool to stand on the promises in God’s word. Shout, because with God doing the fighting for you, its a win win outcome.

Truly I Am,

Apostle Lockley

Daily Bread

We spend a lifetime in fellowship with the Father to prepare for an eternal relationship with Him.

Apostle Lockley