Return to the Wife of Your Youth: What God Has Joined Together, Let No Man Separate

By Walter W. Fox Jr.

This book is a personal testimony that reveals Gods plan to restore all things to Himself as stated in the first chapter of Ephesians, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. The reconciliation of our marriage represents the value God places on the marriage covenant, both in the earthly realm and in the eternal realm according to His eternal purpose.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512715637

Walter W. Fox Jr.

Sandy and Walter Fox were not saved during their initial nine--­year marriage. It was their first marriage. They divorced in the ninth year. After seven years of divorce, God saved Walter and told him to “return to the wife of his youth.” Walter and other believers began to pray for the reconciliation of his marriage. Sandy received the Lord in her heart following a Sunday morning church service several months later. After a season of restoration, they were married again in the Lord. They wrote this book to share their testimony of God’s abundant love, mercy and power. The book will bring to the reader a renewed hope and faith in God’s power to heal marriages. Sandy and Walter believe husbands and wives can live an abundant married life in Christ and bring joy to the heart of God. The same healing anointing God poured into their lives, is available to every Christian couple willing to allow God to become first in their marriage! Sandy and Walter are ordained ministers and currently oversee LoveSavers Ministry and LoveSaversRADIO productions. Their web site is www.lovesaversministry.com.

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Copyright © 2015 Walter W. Fox, Jr..

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1562-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1563-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015916737

WestBow Press rev. date: 1/19/2016

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 Our Story of God's Restoration Power

Chapter 2 The Healing Process Begins

Chapter 3 The Testing of My Faith

Chapter 4 God Restored Our Marriage

Chapter 5 Building our Marriage on a New Foundation

Chapter 6 Prophetic Words Spoken Over Us

Chapter 7 Our First Weekend of Ministry

Chapter 8 Ministry Testimonies

Chapter 9 What Does Your Earthly Marriage Have to Do with Your Eternal Destiny?

Chapter 10 The True Meaning of Covenant

Chapter 11 Warnings and Consequences

Chapter 12 Marriage As God Sees It

Chapter 13 First the Natural, Then the Spiritual

Chapter 14 Transformation of the Inner life will Transform Your Marriage

Chapter 15 The Restoration of the Marriage Covenant

Chapter 16 The Perfect Marriage: The Marriage of the Lamb to the Bride

So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Romans 9:16

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to God for changing the direction of my life. He is surely worthy to be praised. I also want to acknowledge the mentors in my life used by God to counsel and pray for me. I am grateful to Dr. Howard Morgan and Pastor Joe Kelley for their friendship and spiritual support ministered to me and my wife Sandy over the many fruitful years of their ministry. I'm also thankful for the teaching ministry of Pastor Leo Fenton and his dedication to teaching the word of God.

I also want to acknowledge the faithfulness of my wife, Sandy for her willingness to believe God during continued trials and challenges that always accompany serving the Lord. Her dedication and growth in the things of God is commendable. She has been a true helpmate and an inspired communicator of the word of God. Our daughter Cassandra has also been a tremendous support at many levels in our walk with the Lord. She has been our counselor on many occasions and is gifted with the spirit of wisdom and understanding. She is a blessing in every way and will reap the rewards from God for honoring her mother and father as promised in the Word of God.

Introduction

I wrote this book as a personal testimony of God's plan to restore all things to Himself as stated in the first chapter of Ephesians with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. I have come to realize that the reconciliation of our marriage represents the eternal value God places on the marriage covenant. This book explores God's point of view of the marriage covenant in the earthly realm and in the realm of the spiritual: However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable 1 Corinthians 15:46-50.

The book will address how the second Adam and the birthing of the new creature in Christ within you can transform a Christian marriage into a blessed union that will bring joy to the heart of God. The things that are natural can be seen with our natural eyes, but the things of the spirit can only be seen with our spiritual eyes. This book intends to present both the natural and spiritual truths of the marriage covenant and how marriages can truly prosper according to God's Word.

The Natural Versus the Spiritual

The understanding of the spiritual aspects of the marriage covenant may seem too abstract and difficult to understand to the natural mind without experiential revelation of the Holy Spirit. Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus that the Holy Spirit grant them the spirit of wisdom and revelation: "I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding (spiritual eyes) being enlightened; that you may know (in the inner man) what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe," Ephesians 1:17-19. Understanding spiritual truth will happen when you ask the Father for wisdom and understanding. No longer will truth be abstract, it will be crystal clear! "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." 1 John 5:14-15.

The Bible begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve and ends with the marriage of the Bride of Christ to the Bridegroom as revealed in Revelation 19:7-8. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Who is the Bride of Christ? Is it the entire church population since the church began? It is exclusively to those who do the whole will of God? These are good questions to ask of the Father for wisdom and understanding!

Knowledge Rather Than Life

The first marriage failed because of the disobedience to God's Word. Adam and Eve's mistaken desire for knowledge rather than life was their error. The Bible says that every tree in the garden was good for food, but only one tree was good for life. God warned them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and if they did, they would surely die. From the beginning, God intended marriage to be one of the expressions of the Kingdom of God on earth under His authority. The scriptural account in the book of Genesis details the union of Adam and Eve according to the will of God. God was the initiator of this supernatural union between Adam and Eve including God's decision to create Eve as a helpmate to Adam. God presented Eve to Adam and Adam called her Woman. She was a full-grown woman taken and created from the side of Adam. She was not created from the dirt of the ground. When Christ was pierced by a Roman soldier while on the cross, the bible says that blood and water came out from His side. This is a picture of how God is building His church. The blood represents the life of God and the water represents the word of God. As God created the first Eve from the side of the first Adam, God is preparing His bride, the second Eve, from the side of the second Adam who is Jesus. There is no third Adam.

Marriage is God's Idea

It was God who established the terms of the covenant relationship between the first Adam and the first Eve in declaring and they shall become one flesh. As time passed through the annals of Judaism, another point of view evolved that established a lower understanding of the marriage covenant contrary to God's original purpose when He created the first marriage. This lower level understanding viewed marriage as merely a relationship between man and woman. However, God's design of the covenant relationship between Adam and Eve was not a one dimensional covenant, but two critical dimensions: The horizontal dimension, the covenant between Adam and Eve or to each other; and as important, the vertical dimension, the covenant between Adam and Eve and God. Jesus made this clear in Matthew 19 when He said, Consequently they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 presents a practical picture of these two dimensions of the marriage covenant: Verse 9: Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. Verse 10: For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Verse 11: Furthermore, if two lie down together to keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? Verse 12: And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him... a cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. Solomon's picture illustrations show the differences between marriage on a human level, the two strands, and marriage on a supernatural level wherein God is the third strand that keeps a marriage together during the storms of life.

God is a Witness to Our Marriage Vows

Jesus spoke to His disciples in Matthew 5, 6 and 7 about specific demands of the Kingdom. Again, you have heard the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. Matthew 5:33. The vow of marriage is given before the eyes and ears of the Lord. God's purpose for marriage has never changed. Marriage is a covenant made between husband, wife and God. God is a witness to our marriage vows. Proverbs 2:17 says, "That forsake the friend of her youth, and forget the covenant of her God" refers to marriage as The Covenant of God. The grace of God provides the strength and stability for blessed Marriages and strong Christian families. At the time this nation was established, America was built on biblical foundations. Today, the anti-Christ spirit has distorted these foundations by influencing the highest levels of government including the Supreme Court of the United States. The Bible says that in the last days good will be called evil and evil will be called good. The institution of marriage between a man and a woman is being challenged and redefined. The definition of marriage established by God in the book of Genesis, has been redefined in 2015 by the Supreme Court of the United States by a 5 to 4 decision. A handful of secular humans wearing black robes are in opposition to the Lord of Glory. Supreme Court Justices who have ruled contrary to the Word of God will have their own day in court to present their legal arguments to the true Judge who will be wearing a white robe at the Great White Throne Judgment in eternity future. Judgment at the Throne of God: Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds Revelation 20:11-12. Supreme Court decisions inspired by the anti-Christ spirit in America has changed America's foundations over the past 65 years. These decisions include the ruling on the separation of church and state in 1947 led by Justice Hugo Black; The removal of prayer in public schools in 1962; The removal of bibles from schools due to the fear of psychological damage in 1963; The legalization of abortion in 1973; The removal of the Ten Commandments from public venues in 1980 and the most recent Supreme Court decision of redefining God's creation of marriage between a man and a woman.

America in Moral Decay

Because of the growing absence of the centrality of God within America over the last sixty five years, disastrous results have been unfolding. Shootings in public schools and many public venues, the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City, serious divisions among the different cultures in America and the wide spread political corruption in all levels of government are all manifestations of the absence of God in America. The gravity of what is happening is not just the loss of the centrality of God but also the removal of any reference to God or Jesus from public venues. What's happening in this country is similar to what happened in Israel when their people turned their backs to God and were taken into captivity by their enemies in 536 B.C. The question we must ask is this: Has America gone too far astray from the things of God for any hope or expectation of a national return to God? When Israel was advancing toward Jordan, the prophet Balaam was consulted about how to stop Israel from conquering the Midianites. Balaam came up with a perverted plan to cause the judgment of God to