One of the first things that God established in creating male and female was marriage and family.
Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24 (ESV)
It is the foundation of all relational order. It should be fought for and protected at all costs. Our Father God, our Creator, established the order of marriage and family. This is a governing order with authority and power to advance the kingdom of God.
He has delivered us from the domain [power] of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Colossians 1:13 (ESV)
We are in a spiritual war. Notice the scripture refers to darkness as power or domain. Some of the definitions for power or domain are:
· the power of authority (influence)
· the power of right (privilege)
· the power of rule or government
· authority over mankind
· the power of judicial decisions
· authority to manage domestic affairs
· a thing subject to authority or rule
· a ruler, a human magistrate
· the leading and more powerful among created beings superior to man
· spiritual potentates—people who possess great power (not human).[1][AH1]
Darkness is a force, and the kingdom of darkness has agents working together to keep humanity in bondage. Darkness is not something that we ignore; darkness needs to be resisted.
Let’s examine one definition, “authority to manage domestic affairs.” Domestic affairs include personal rights and freedoms, social welfare, healthcare, education, legislation, law enforcement, natural resources, and energy generation and use. Our everyday life is affected by domestic policy. In the kingdom of darkness, agents have the authority to manage domestic affairs. This authority includes our personal rights and freedoms.
The assignment of the power of darkness is to destroy our domestic affairs.
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Psalm 11:3 (ESV)
If the order of the marriage is disrupted, it affects the authority with the children. If the marriage crumbles, the family goes down with it. This is why fathers are instructed to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)
The power of darkness wants to strip that position in the family. If the power of darkness can disrupt marriage, it will decimate the family and bring decline and devastation to our communities. The foundational strength in creation is marriage. God is the God of perfect order.
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
1 Corinthians 11:3 (ESV)
This is an arranged order designed by God alone. If a person is a Christian, he or she will embrace this order. What is the opposite of order? The opposite of order is chaos. Chaos is confusion, mayhem, turmoil, upheaval, and anarchy. A person chooses freely between order and chaos.
Marriage is a pillar, a strong wall that protects the family and guards the next generation. One of the costs of separation and divorce is that the father is taken away in most cases. There is also the problem of unmarried couples having children and then the father going AWOL (absent without leave).
The adverse effects of a child without a father can be seen in countless studies and reports. The statistics show the importance of a father in children’s lives.
According to “What Can the Federal Government Do to Decrease Crime and Revitalize Communities?” from the U.S. Department of Justice, children from fatherless homes account for:
· Suicide: 63 percent of youth suicides
· Runaways: 90 percent of all homeless and runaway youths
· Behavioral disorders: 85 percent of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders
· High school dropouts: 71 percent of all high school dropouts
· Juvenile detention rates: 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions
· Substance abuse: 75 percent of adolescent patients in substance abuse centers
· Aggression: 85 percent of rapists motivated by displaced anger
To back up that data from 1998, which continues to be cited by researchers, a 2016 report of teenagers placed in juvenile residential facilities shows that 45 percent were living with only one parent at the time. That is a significant difference compared to 30 percent of teens in two-parent households.[2]
The above statistics are the experiences of chaos in real life. The statistics are staggering. Suicide, runaways, and substance abuse are reinforced through the father’s absence. The father has the authority to guard and protect the home. This is where it all begins and ends. This explains why fathers and husbands are the targets. The governing authority is the target of spiritual war. When the marriage breaks down, the family cannot sustain itself. This affects our neighborhoods and our communities.
The Bible says that when the fall of man came into the earth, the woman was deceived. The feminist movement followed up with other anarchy movements that are destroying the order of the family through deception. The power of darkness is moving and operating through governmental agencies to destroy the marriage/family order as designed by God. Men and women in darkness are becoming rebellious and acting according to their own thinking. They are deceived and are leading the next generation to more deception.
The husband is the guardian. Take away the protective hedge, and the rest of the family is open to a full-frontal assault. These days, it’s not that hard to take the guardian and the protective hedge down. Everywhere you look, there is confusion about the family. The men are brought down and confused by television shows, talk shows, articles, and books that depict their weakness and deny their God-given authority to protect and bless. Women are constantly arguing that they don’t need men for anything. Many women are indeed making more money than men, but that doesn’t negate the importance of the role of a husband and father, according to the scriptures. Single-parent-run homes are full of stress. According to Fathers.com, [AH2] summarizing information from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.[3]A brief by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services adds:
Children living in female-headed families with no spouse present had a poverty rate of 47.6 percent, over four times the rate in married-couple families.[4]
Marriage was established at the beginning of creation to be a union of blessings. God was very specific when He spoke and instructed the male/female creation.
God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply….”
Genesis 1:28 (ESV)
Multiplication is God’s blessing on marriage and family. Fruitfulness is the way of the Lord. Poverty is subtraction. Poverty is a curse and causes severe problems. The man was not designed to live alone. That would go for the woman, too. Husbands and wives together bring forth blessings in the marriage and family.
Marriage is the kingpin in society and the foundation for a strong, healthy family, community, city, state, and nation. All these things stem from marriage. The ruin of a nation comes from the destruction of marriage and family. Remember, one of the agents in the dominion of darkness is the authority to manage domestic affairs. How do the dark agents do this? By deceiving human beings, tearing down the original plan for marriage, and replacing it with a twisted, backward version to bring human beings into bondage, slavery, and poverty. Their end game is ultimately the dark caves of Hades, separating humans from the love of God in this life and the life to come.
[1] “141 Bible Results for Darkness,” Bible Gateway, accessed September 25, 2023, https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?qs_version=NKJV&quicksearch=+darkness&startnumber=101.
[2] “What Can the Federal Government Do to Decrease Crime and Revitalize Communities?” U.S. Department of Justice, January 5-7, 1998, https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles/172210.pdf.
[3] “The Consequences of Fatherlessness,” Fathers.com, accessed September 25, 2023, https://fathers.com/the-consequences-of-fatherlessness/.
[4] “Information on Poverty and Income Statistics: A Summary of 2012 Current Population Survey Data,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ASEP Issue Brief, September 11, 2012, http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/12/PovertyAndIncomeEst/ib.shtml.
Well said. It's a shame that so many people are unaware of this...