The first thing we want to say is thatthe man is the prophet of his home. His wife is the fruit of his prophecy each day. Your wife is the fruit of your prophecy.
Men, lift up your hands and say, “I am the prophet of my home and I have been harvesting the fruit of my prophecies.” You have created what you now have by your prophecies. You have been harvesting the fruit of your prophecies. But more than that,everyone here is the fruit of his prophecy about himself.Everyone should put up his hand and say, “I am the fruit of the prophecy I have prophesied about myself.” What you have said about yourself, God has confirmed it and brought it to pass it. You are the fruit of the prophecies you prophesy about yourself.
Every successful man has prophesied success about himself in his words, in his attitude, and in his thinking.It is very frightful, but also very true. When things have been difficult and you have confessed, “I will succeed in spite of the difficulties,” you have succeeded. When you gave up, you failed. If you want to change a man, change what he says about himself.
I also want to say this:Every woman is a prophetess in her home.Your husband is what you have prophesied, even if your prophecies come forth as a long face, or as a groan which says what volumes of books could not say. Women, lift up your hands and say: “The boy who came into my life and the man I have today are the creation of my prophecies, of the things I have said.” When she has said to him, “You are irresponsible!” it has not led the man to bubble to be responsible. When she has said, “You are a good man; you are the best thing that has ever happened to me,” the man has gone out determined to be good, and sought to come back home with a good present for her. The minimum is that he brought back a smile and he came back home early to this prophetess of good.
If the man had married another woman, he would have been different. Sister, you have the man you have created. It is frightful, but true! Is there a man here who has ever thought that if his wife had married a different man she would have been happier? In fact, I have thought so. I have sometimes thought that if my wife were married to someone less demanding, she would have been happier.
The human power to make people into what they are is a frightful responsibility.I am frightened about it, but I cannot run away from it. Let us go to the Word of God. Genesis 1:26 (NIV) says,
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”
Both man and woman were made in God’s image.Turn to your partner and say, “You are made in God’s image.” Everybody here is made in God’s image. Lift up both hands and say,“We are made in God’s image and in God’s likeness.”Bless the Lord because we are made in God’s image.
How can I put it? The pidgin word will explain it better: “You thick oh! You dey for God image.” The Enemy says, “Reduce the value of a thing, then throw it away.” It is the work of the Enemy to devalue things. Call a dog a bad name and hang it. When you take that which is in the image and likeness of God and reduce its value, finally saying that it is nothing, it is walking in the pathway of the devil. When you give a person his right value, the person rises up to new heights and a new person emerges out of the old.
When I was in the High School, there was an American teacher by name Dr. Stanley. He was our science adviser. His wife had aged faster than him by far and she looked very old. However, he one day told us, “Do you see that girl? When we get back to America, she will get into Law School.” She had long before had a Masters’ degree in Biology. That whole morning, we talked about this “girl”! Some of us said, “But she is a grandmother!” He knew how to make a woman happy. Unfortunately, most men do not know how to make a woman happy. She certainly would have been very happy to hear him say that. He saw the girl in his wife. Most men see the grandmother in their wives, and then they are compelled to live with that grandmother all their lives.
Will you pray that God should open your eyes to see your partner as valuable beyond words, made in the image and the likeness of God?
Like God!
A small god!
Wonderfully made!
that’s your partner!
If we see the person through the eyes of God, through the value system of God, and proclaim what God says concerning him, we shall bring about a revolution. This day I call you, as I call myself, to put aside what we have thought about our partners and proclaim what God says of them, for God is right. If there is any error, it must be in our value system, because God is never wrong. We refuse to look at ourselves according to our value system. Do you believe the Scriptures that your partner is made in the image and likeness of God? Real faith has nothing to do with mental gymnastics. It is imparted to the heart by the Holy Spirit.
