God's Order For The Family

Greetings,

I pray that everyone is doing well.  Please….I hope you invest time to read God’s Order in the Family that I put together, as it can change your life and the life of your family. 

First, I want to share with you a short story from the Healing Room Ministry at Faith Bible Chapel.  We had a 14 year old girl that came in with extremely painful migraine headaches.  She had been in a couple of times previously was healed of a blurry eye problem.  I reviewed the notes in her profile and what the teams prayed about previously.  I could see that the team was praying for the symptoms that were manifesting in the physical like headaches and such.  Being such a young girl and experiencing migraines, my immediate thoughts were that she had some sort of fear in her life that may have triggered her migraines.  Maybe some sort of trauma.  I asked her if she was in fear of something or if she had any trauma in her life.  Her answer was no.  Her father interrupted our conversation to say that she indeed had a severe head injury as a two year old and at the age of 13 had a concussion from skiing.  There it was.  She had a trauma that quite possible could have been an open door for fear to enter into this child.  We proceeded to command those two spirits of trauma/fears away and prayed healing  from the damage done and prayed healing of the migraines.  We believe that God healed her that night and hope to hear the praise report in the future.  Praise God.

God’s Order in the Family

It is my intention to bring to light the importance of God’s order in the family.  It is a subject that is very rarely taught and it is unfortunate that we don’t fully realize and understand the consequences of not having Godly order in the family.  Compromising Godly order has been catastrophic to our families resulting in dysfunctional families.  Family members suffer from rejection, unloving, anger, un-forgiveness, bitterness, hate, and self-hatred, hopelessness which have manifested into sickness and disease from a compromised immune system in many cases.

In God's plan men and women were made for different roles. God first created Adam and gave him the responsibility to work and keep the Garden. (Gen. 2:15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.) Genesis 2:18 says that God made Eve and she was created to be a "helper" for man. Her position in reference to man is defined as first "a helper," literally, to "help" Adam in fulfilling his responsibilities in the Garden.  God gave that responsibility to Eve.  If Adam was to achieve his God directed objectives in life, he needed the help of his mate.  In the creation of Eve, God set forth His plan for the role of women. God's plan was to have Eve be at Adam's side in every way, from having offspring to being Adam's partner in all that was needed for him to carry out his obligations.  Eve was the needed part of Adam, making him complete in agreeing with him mentally, physically, spiritually. She was not made as an inferior being in any degree, but was made for a different and equally important role and purpose in life.

 Adam upon seeing Eve and receiving her said that Eve was "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23) recognizing that had God created her from him (Genesis 2:22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man).  Adam made a marriage commitment and God instructed man to leave our parents and be "joined" to his wife and they would be one flesh (Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh Genesis 2:24).  This statement showed commitment and established the proper bound between them being devoted to each other. In other words they would function as a unit in union.  Adam understood his responsibility and in initiating the marriage performed his duty as being the one responsible in the union. Thus, the first recorded statement of Adam was to demonstrate his leadership and responsibility to the woman in that he made a vow of commitment and he gave Eve her name (Genesis 3:20). This set the example for the future human race and God has not changed His plan.

 In Genesis 2, God established the family.  God is a God of order and He set the organization of the family in its creation. Any organization must have the roles of its members clearly defined to be able to function and support the organization. God gave the man the responsibility to be the head of the family in providing provision and leadership. The woman's role in the family is as vital and important as the man's in her domain as wife and mother.  She brings that special ability to provide love, nurturing, compassion and protection to the children and a close partnership with the husband.

God created Adam and Eve in perfect harmony and that continued without conflict until Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin into the world. This began the problem man and woman not accepting or fulfilling their God given roles. Sin manifested itself in sinful pride and distorted this perfect union. Eve negated Adam's responsibility in leadership and listened to Satan instead of her husband. She apparently was easily deceived and she decided to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate…).  Eve then gave the fruit to Adam (Genesis 3:6…She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate) who relinquished his leadership role to Eve and plunged the human race into sin.

Sin degraded the man's and woman's roles coming from the carnal nature and pride of mankind. The biblical example affirms that men are to be the leaders in the home, church, and state. Women were not created to rule these divine institutions, because God gave that responsibility to the man. The prophet Isaiah was condemning Israel when he said they had allowed women ruled over them (Isaiah 3:12 As for My people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, And destroy the way of your paths”).

This distortion of God's truth, looking through carnal eyes, fails to see that God never in any way degraded a woman, but made her of equal importance in the marriage union. Man is not the woman's master, but rather her provider and leader. The truth is there can be no union or true biblical marriage without the man and the woman functioning biblically in each of their distinctive roles. If the man abdicates his role of being its spiritual leader, loving husband/father, and providing for his family, the family falls into serious trouble.  (As a side note, it is especially critical that he conveys the love of God the Father to his wife and children).  The same applies to the woman who tries step into the role of the man. In either case the family as God created and structured it, is severely weaken or destroyed. Further, the same principle applies in a local church when the man does not provide the leadership and when woman step out of their God given roles and seek to rule over men. When this happens in a church the organization and structure of the church is out of order and sets an unbiblical example for the families of that church. This is why it is so important for a church to present a proper and biblical example of God's instructions to its members, their families and the world around them. 

We have established the Biblical principle in Godly order in the family.  So, the next question is: How did we go wrong and why are families in shambles?  Although there were many contributing factors, I would like to discuss two and they involve experiences of the families in the fifties and sixties.  Life and our needs were rather simple back then.  Fathers went to work and mothers stayed home with the children.  Houses were small and a three foot closet in the bedrooms was sufficient to hold clothes.

It was towards the end of the sixties and early seventies, the women’s movement started and one of the primary women involved in this was Gloria Steinem.  Gloria was behind the feminist movement advocated a collection of movements and ideologies armed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, cultural and social rights for women.  A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.  In other words, they wanted equal footing with men in opportunities and the decision making.  This movement does not seem significant now, but it was during a period of time where the baby boomers were open to new ways of thinking that affected God’s order in the family that had a trickle down affect to this day.

As we can now see, men have given into this ideology without truly understanding how and why this has affected our families.  Satan has come in and defiled the order in our families and he is doing to us what he did to Adam and Eve in Genesis.  He lied to them, has lied to us, and it has caused brokenness in our families.

Starting in the sixties and seventies all the way to this present age, our culture has promoted bigger and better. The ads are everywhere.  You are measured on what you have.  We wanted bigger cars, bigger houses, expensive vacations, toys, entertainment, etc.  We wanted to keep up with our neighbors so we went in debt to buy more when it clearly says in the Bible You shall not covet your neighbor’s house…Exodus 20:17. 

Soon, the wife had to go to work to support the family.  To do this, the family put the children in day care centers.  During this time there was also a shift of responsibility from the father to mother.  Even when the mother was not working, a great deal of responsibility was on the women in the decision making.  Father would come home from a hard day at work and he would sit down and watch television.  He would play sports with the guys on weekends or hang out with the guys.  All the while the women had no other choice but to control the household.  The children would naturally go to the mother for any questions they would have.  In essence, the man had checked out. The Father was not there to provide order in most cases. The fatherly love that the wives and children need so desperately was and is absent resulting in rejection and feeling unloved.  How do I know this?  I see the absence of the father in the adult children’s lives almost every week at the Healing Room ministry that I am a part of.  I see it in our family and all the way back through the generations.  I am not saying that all fathers have checked out, but it is quite evident today that there is a severe problem.  Ask a child in today’s culture and they will say that they go to the mother for most things.  In other words, the mother is the decision maker in far too many households.

Godly order in the family has been compromised.  Dad has given control to the mother if she is not working.  The working father and mother have given control to the day care facility.  We are in complete violation of God’s order and we can’t understand why the family is in shambles?  Godly family order is one of the first things in the Bible that God laid out to mankind.  This is a curse of the family and the generations.

So how do we correct this and break the curse?  First of all, it is not complicated.  We as husbands and wives must acknowledge that we have not followed God’s order for the family.  Next we must confess our sin not only for ourselves as husband and wife but for the past generations for not having Godly order in the family.

Does it work? Absolutely!  How do I know?  Because we have experienced break through on a number of issues with son, daughter, and granddaughter recently.  Breaches have begun to be repaired and relationships are being restored. 

Ultimately, who is to blame for this un-Godly order in my house?  I must take full responsibility because I failed to take on the role of leader as defined by God in Genesis.   I have confessed my sin and asked God for forgiveness.  Ignorance is not an excuse for us gentlemen.  We must repent and ask God for forgiveness. 

Women, I ask that you do as my wife did in confessing that she too did not following God’s order for the family and asked God to forgive her as well.

I think you will agree that Godly order in the family is very important.  Our body, mind (soul), and spirit are greatly affected as well when we don’t have Godly order.  When we don’t have Godly order, we are not in balance or agreement with God and with that we can have chaos reigning in our family throughout the generations.  So, when we are out of order with God and the family, everything is out of order including our physical and mental health.  

With that being said I want to discuss the subject of Neurotransmitters. The information I am going to share from a science prospective may allow insight into your life and lives of others especially as it relates or links to our physical and mental health.  How we think, speak, and act affects our physical as I discussed in the opening paragraph.  Perhaps we can have a better understanding of our sickness and disease if we look at the root cause of sickness and disease.   

NEUROTRANSMITTERS are the brain chemicals that communicate information throughout our brain and body.  They relay signals between nerve cells, called “neurons.”  The brain uses neurotransmitters to tell your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, and your stomach to digest.  They can also affect mood, sleep, concentration, weight, and can cause adverse symptoms when they are out of balance. Neurotransmitter levels can be depleted many ways.  As a matter of fact, it is estimated that 86% of Americans have suboptimal neurotransmitter levels.  Stress (Fear), poor diet, neurotoxins, genetic predisposition, drugs (prescription and recreational), alcohol and caffeine usage can cause these levels to be out of optimal range.

There are two kinds of neurotransmitters – INHIBITORY and EXCITATORY.  Excitatory neurotransmitters are not necessarily exciting – they are what stimulate the brain.  Those that calm the brain and help create balance are called inhibitory.  Inhibitory neurotransmitters balance mood and are easily depleted when the excitatory neurotransmitters are overactive. 

Inhibitory Neurotransmitters

SEROTONIN is an inhibitory neurotransmitter – which means that it does not stimulate the brain.  Adequate amounts of serotonin are necessary for a stable mood and to balance any excessive excitatory (stimulating) neurotransmitter firing in the brain.  If you use stimulant medications or caffeine in your daily regimen – it can cause a depletion of serotonin over time.  Serotonin also regulates many other processes such as carbohydrate cravings, sleep cycle, pain control and appropriate digestion.  Low serotonin levels are also associated with decreased immune system function.  Depression causes the Serotonin levels to fall and doctors prescribe Serotonin (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft )  to bring up the levels.

GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that is often referred to as “nature’s VALIUM-like substance”.  When GABA is out of range (high or low excretion values), it is likely that an excitatory neurotransmitter is firing too often in the brain.  GABA will be sent out to attempt to balance this stimulating over-firing.

DOPAMINE is a special neurotransmitter because it is considered to be both excitatory and inhibitory.  Dopamine helps with depression as well as focus, which you will read about in the excitatory section.

Excitatory Neurotransmitters

DOPAMINE is our main focus neurotransmitter.  When dopamine is either elevated or low – we can have focus issues such as not remembering where we put our keys, forgetting what a paragraph said when we just finished reading it or simply daydreaming and not being able to stay on task.  Dopamine is also responsible for our drive or desire to get things done – or motivation.  Stimulants such as medications for ADD/ADHD (Concerta, Adderall, Ritalin) and caffeine cause dopamine to be pushed into the synapse so that focus is improved.  Unfortunately, stimulating dopamine consistently can cause a depletion of dopamine over time.

NOREPINEPHRINE is an excitatory neurotransmitter that is responsible for stimulatory processes in the body.  Norepinephrine helps to make epinephrine as well.  This neurotransmitter can cause ANXIETY (Fear) at elevated excretion levels as well as some “MOOD DAMPENING” effects.  Low levels of norepinephrine are associated with LOW ENERGY, DECREASED FOCUS ability and sleep cycle problems.

EPINEPHRINE is an excitatory neurotransmitter that is reflective of stress (FEAR).  This neurotransmitter will often be elevated when ADHD like symptoms are present.  Long term STRESS (Fear) or INSOMNIA can cause epinephrine levels to be depleted (low).  Epinephrine also regulates HEART RATE and BLOOD PRESSURE.

It is my prayer that you truly understand how important God’s order is for your family and that you implement His order in your family to ward off curses, sickness and disease.

Tony Sanchez  11-20-14