Throughout the Scriptures the Lord speaks of the great blessing that belongs to the seed of those who walk before Him. The blessing of the Lord rests upon a couple who carefully seek His will in their marriage, even concerning the children that He wants to come forth. Divine favor rests upon the babies who are born to these parents. The Scriptures also tell us that the wicked will be cut off from the land (Proverbs 2:22). In the days of the Kingdom, the number of children who are born to the ungodly will diminish until the ungodly disappear from the earth; but the children who come forth through the righteous will be many.
Malachi shows us God’s true purpose for marriages. And did he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For I hate putting away, saith Jehovah… Malachi 2:15–16.
The term “putting away” refers to divorce. In verse 14 the Lord reminded the sons of Israel that He had been a witness against the way the men were treating their wives. God hates the breaking of marriage, and what He hates we must hate. Therefore, we also must hate divorce with all of our heart. Wherever there has been a divorce, the people involved should repent earnestly so that they find the grace of God for forgiveness. Then they should not make one move toward another marriage unless they are sure that it is absolutely the perfect will of God to open up a new chapter in their lives and to give them a fresh beginning.
From this passage in Malachi, we see that God hates divorce because His desire is to bless marriage. Marriage was not instituted just so that two people can have merely a legal physical relationship. Marriage was instituted because God is seeking a godly seed. He is seeking children to come forth in Him. For six thousand years the negative characteristics of the Adamic nature have been transmitted from parents to children. Think what could be transmitted to children whose parents have been filled with the divine nature. Why should our faith be conditioned to that which is negative? Instead, let us reach into a positive faith and believe that a couple can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and by the promises of God they can produce a child as filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb as John the Baptist was (Luke 1:15). John was a true man of God, yet the Scriptures tell us that he who is the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11). In this day of restoration, we should believe for an anointing even greater than his.
In Isaiah 54:1–3 we read: Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith Jehovah. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. (In other words, add on another room because there will be some additions to the family.) For thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. This prophecy is already having a spiritual fulfillment: spiritual fathers are bringing forth sons, who are bringing forth sons, who are bringing forth sons.
Isaiah 66:8 tells us that a nation will be born in one day. It is difficult for us to understand this unless we tie it in with the prophecy in Isaiah 60:22. There we read that the little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. No believer should ever feel small—he will become the father of a thousand, spiritually. We must also look for the fulfillment of this promise in the physical realm. The seed of the righteous will be blessed.
In Isaiah 14:20 we read what was prophesied to Satan: Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever. Then the prophecy was directed against the satanic offspring. Prepare ye slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they rise not up, and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities. And I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son, saith Jehovah. I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts. Verses 21–23.
All we have to do is believe for the barrenness of Babylon. The wicked systems of the world will not be able to produce that which can continue. They will not be able to perpetuate their rule because there will be no one to take over. The Babylonian religious systems are already troubled because they do not have enough young people enrolled in seminaries to carry on the ministry. They sense the barrenness of the system, and they are turning to other lines of work. Babylon will be very much in trouble trying to reproduce itself; but spiritual Zion will be blessed to a thousand generations.
We have claimed the promises of God predominantly in the spiritual realm, but we must expect God to elevate and bless us materially also. Let us begin to bless what the Lord is going to bless, so that we will no longer plant and have someone else reap, nor build houses for someone else to inhabit. The time has come when we will inherit the works of our hands, instead of having them become a spoil (Isaiah 65:21–22). As long as the Israelites were under the rule of Babylon, the enemy came in to reap their crops, taking everything they had labored for. The same has been true today where we have labored and nothing has come of it. But now God will turn the tide and bless the labors of the righteous.
Isaiah 54:13 tells us that our children will be taught of the Lord. Even beyond their understanding they will have an open propensity toward the things of God. For this reason, we must nurture that which God wants to bring forth in their lives. We must bless the children; but the blessing has to be more than a staying action to keep them immune from the ravages of the world and to keep them from becoming juvenile delinquents. Babylonian forces are set to brainwash the youth, to take their heritage away from them, and to produce rebellion within their hearts; but God is bringing forth young people who will be so submissive that they will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).
No matter what happens in the days ahead, we will not see the people of God or their families in want. God is going to help them, for this is the promise of Psalm 37:25–29: I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. All the day long he dealeth graciously, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For Jehovah loveth justice, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.
In times past, as well as in this time of restoration, children who were a part of a church that really believed in the Lord were persecuted in public schools. The young Christian was always made to feel inferior and worthless. With shoulders back and head held high, he had to remind himself daily, “I am a child of the King.” God’s people have had to coexist in a world where the seed of the ungodly seem to prevail, but that will be reversed. God’s people will now prevail. Psalm 149 speaks of the saints who will execute vengeance on the nations and bind their kings and nobles with chains of iron. There is nothing vindictive about it; it is simply that those kings must be bound because they have usurped what belongs to God’s people, and they are standing in the way of the Kingdom.
God is seeking a godly seed to inherit His promises and live in them forever. How will this godly seed come forth? And did he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? He sought a godly seed. Malachi 2:15a. The Lord has an abundance of Spirit, and He does not have to consolidate spirits. A husband and a wife can have a good marriage in which they work together and raise their children without too much conflict, even if each of them still retains a separate, distinct spirit. God has enough Spirit for everyone to have a separate spirit. Even though He has a residue of Spirit, yet He is always trying to consolidate two spirits into one. Why? He knows that a godly seed is produced when a husband and a wife are not only one flesh, but also one spirit. Two people who are only one flesh may produce rebellious, ungodly children. But when a husband and a wife are one spirit, they will produce a godly seed.
Each marriage that God brings forth will experience a shaking. The couple may try to work out their marriage under divine order, but in this day when God’s Kingdom is being established, a marriage will have to go beyond the divine order that God has revealed for a family. God is revealing a new Kingdom order for marriage. Under the divine order for the Church, wives have been taught to be submissive to their husbands, and children to be obedient to their parents (Ephesians 5:22–24; 6:1). There has been more concern about divine order for the family than about divine oneness of spirit. However, according to the standards of the Kingdom, everything of individuality must disappear. It is no longer a divine order in which individuals can coexist. It is a divine order in which everyone is swallowed up into one spirit, into unity and oneness. That is why the marriages are constantly being shaken, even though the people involved try to follow divine order. The Lord is demanding that the separations and the individuality of spirit be removed until the husband and the wife come together in one spirit.
Paul was referring to this oneness of spirit when he wrote to the Galatians, “There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Divine order in the Church has taught the distinction between male and female, saying that the wife is to be submissive to her husband. However, the deeper Kingdom level requires that the two of them, with one spirit, be submissive to the Lord. The marriage breaks down if the husband lacks submission to the Lord. By Kingdom standards, the husband will never be totally submissive to the Lord until his wife, his helpmate, helps him so that in one spirit they can fulfill the will of God together.
Do you want a Kingdom marriage? Seek for God to give it to you and refuse to settle for anything less. Physical attraction is not the basis for a Kingdom marriage. There must be total submission to the will of God in each one, until total submission to the Lord is found in both the male and the female, or else the oneness of spirit that God wants will never come forth.
Why did God make one? Because He sought a godly seed. Oneness does not occur when one person abandons himself to be one with someone else. Oneness only occurs when each person abandons himself to be one with Christ.