One of those silent members of the parish has come forward to seek prayer and counsel for the troubles in his life. His name is Tom and he lives in California, runs his own business. The problem is his wife serves a different deity; not in the sense of openly religious, but the demons have guided her decisions and they are oppressing and destroying as they usually do. He's been seeing a Christian counselor, so he's already aware of the dynamics. He seeks to walk the heart-led way and things are really rough; there are two kids not yet in secondary school.

Tom needs a miracle. I've asked him to focus on his mission and calling and advised him to take precautions to protect his mission. Once he has a clear vision of that, he'll know what he has to do, and what to believe God for. Pray for our brother Tom.

Absolutely I will pray for him. It sounds especially rough with the kids involved.

Did you invite him to the forum here? It may help him, at least with the basic encouragement aspect.

Either way, I will be praying.

I, too, will be praying for Tom and his family.  I can absolutely relate to the extent that I can, with the challenges he is facing as I, too, am in a similar situation.  Father gives me the ways to deal, but I don't always or am not always, in my human weakness, able to follow through and stay "sane"  Sanity, of course is a state of mind and only when I be in my heart-led self can I get through each day.

Father will lead him.  It is up to each of us to be "aware" through our hearts what the path is........

I haven't made any special invitation, but there's a reason. I felt led to offer two separate responses to his request for counsel. The first establishes the baseline that he should be ready for the worst. Then later I sent a second, so labeled, to suggest he do the red-pill manly thing and put the monkey on her back by seeking to assert some form of dominion. If she's truly alienated already, that should force the break. Otherwise, it could lead to healing. I also cautioned him to protect whatever was essential to his mission calling. I'm waiting to see how that goes down with him; it may not be his way of doing things. Only God can make that real to him. How I word my invitation for further engagement here would depend on how he responds.

(07-22-2018, 04:01 PM)Ed Hurst Wrote: suggest he do the red-pill manly thing and put the monkey on her back by seeking to assert some form of dominion. If she's truly alienated already, that should force the break. Otherwise, it could lead to healing. 

If things are that bad, then that's probably the only tool(s) in his belt. I don't know the whole situation, obviously, so who knows what cards she holds and how much "validity" is on her side.

It doesn't help, either, in the general sense that modern marriage isn't considered the covenant it once was, and that state forces are (or can be) so heavily involved in it.

The primary way for man to drive the demons out of his life is asserting the Covenant of Christ, which means seizing the reins and driving forward. It is a natural result that he'll be leaving behind anything Christ doesn't want for him. If that includes a false marriage, it's the one best way of finding out that it's false. If it's a good marriage, then he'll be dragging her along and she'll be leaving her demons behind. The only way to know for sure is to seize His glory and hang on for dear life, then see what follows you.

Update: We are currently on track to try saving the marriage. I'm starting to share some of the red-pill stuff.

You know this, but it's (probably) going to be hard for both of them. There's going to be dozens of influencing factors that are telling them to do the opposite, or at least something different. And plenty of that will come from religious sources.

Thanks, everyone, for your kind words and prayers.  Ed brought my attention to the forum in an email yesterday and I'm both surprised and pleased to have the support of a circle of like-minded people.  It took years to dig ourselves into this deep hole, but now that we've struck water, the dynamic has changed as there is a sense of imminent danger.  Ed in the last several days has provided me with powerful and heartfelt counsel, putting the burden on me to take the reins and lead in accordance with His designs.  This, like so much in life, is a work in progress.

Welcome to the forum, Tom. You should feel no need to spill your guts, but share what you believe is appropriate as things progress. We truly do believe in the power of prayer.