Reacciones adversas

Some people say, "Well, I have to get alone with the Lord, and I don't have time for that." I want to show you that the Bible does not tell you that. In fact, the Bible tells you just the opposite. What you have to do is learn to regiment your time; learn how to discipline yourself, as far as time is concerned. When you do, I'll guarantee you that you will find plenty of time to do all the things that need to be done, and do them in style. Somehow, we have gotten the idea that to be spiritual means that you have to divorce yourself from all the natural things in life. No.

This is where we live. You say, "I can't write any checks

and pay any bills. I have to get alone with the Lord.

Mowing the lawn is unspiritual." No, it is all a part and parcel of the whole package of life, and you need to learn how to relate it to the Word of God.

We read in Ephesians 5:31 where "... they shall be one flesh." Let us look at another Scripture that goes right along with this husband and wife business of becoming so super-spiritual that they neglect their family obligations. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 7, we begin with verse 2, and read,

"Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

Now, you know as well as I do, or if you don't know, you need to find out, that fornication has to do with sexual intercourse, usually between people that are not married.

That shows you right there that God is not opposed to sexual intercourse, because if He were opposed to sexual intercourse, He would have made no contingencies for you to perform it. He is telling you that when you do it outside of the context of marriage, you are in sin. But He is going to show you how you can be a part of that, and have it in its proper context; in marriage. Notice, He said,

"Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

Husbands; wives, that is godly. That is the will of God, that there be husbands and wives. He goes on to say, "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence; and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife."

There is a teaching that is prevalent in this Charismatic renewal about the business of submission. Some men want to use this against their wives and they say, "Well,

you are supposed to submit." What they fail to realize is that in many instances they have taken the word submit and have given it the same meaning as the word domination. Submission does not mean domination. The word submit, literally, in the Greek, means "yield unto the other." It means to "yield to the other person."

And the Bible does not just say for wives to submit to the husbands, but it says that both the husband and the wife should submit one to the other on an equality.

Submission simply means "yielding to the other person." In other words, you seek to make the other person happy instead of yourself.

Some men have the idea that submission means that they can give orders to their wives, and they tell them what to do, and run them around like robots. That is not according to the Bible. That is not submission: that is domination. God does not intend for any man to dominate another man. You are not to be dominated by your husband, or dominated by your wife. "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband" (v. 3). He tells us in v. 4; "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband:

and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife." What is he saying? He is saying that it should be a mutually agreed situation. It should either be mutually agreed to do or not to do, but it should not be one person telling the other person that this is the way it has to be. There ought to be an agreement between the two. And unless there is an agreement between them, it is not really going to work out right. I have sat across the desk from many people over the years, and that is one of the areas where they are really messed up—but good. One thinks that he is supposed to tell the other what to do,

when it should be a mutually agreed situation.

Verse 5 says, "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that satan tempt you not for you incontinency." Incontinency, in the Greek, literally means "lack of control, or lack of control over yourself." All right, he said, "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent ...." If the husband is going to deny his wife her husbandly affection and attention, and the wife likewise, it should only be done when the two of them agree to it. One does not have any right to just go off somewhere alone, lock himself, or herself, up with the Word, and deny the wife, or husband. It should be a mutually agreed situation, where they agree, "We will do it for this period of time." Then he says, "... come back together so you won't be tempted by the enemy," because temptation is going to come in that area if you are not careful. He is giving you a way that you can ward off that problem. When you get to the point where you are so super-spiritual that you don't have time for family relationships, be careful.

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