Now you can't just suddenly stand up, and start to go bossing everyone around. That'd be the wrong thing to do. That'll create more problems. You can't swing from one side, doing nothing; to the other side, doing a lot. You've actually got to first of all take a sense of ownership, and come to a place of repentance, where you've neglected or failed or let the family down. To be the head of the family, means to take responsibility for the marriage, and the family. You take responsibility. You take responsibility, and if you fail to take responsibility, you've failed to fulfil God's role, and there's a problem in your home because of it. Now you could have all the excuses under the sun, but God will not listen to any of them. Adam - hey you did this. Hey, don't look at me, it's my wife. [Laughter] God didn't listen to any of that. The Bible records: by one man, sin entered the world. When we look at your family, it'll be recorded by you, the man, sin entered the family. Won't be able to blame your wife, won't be able to blame the kids. You're responsible, because you're in charge.
Now we start to take ownership and responsibility, the first thing that happens, is the power of God comes to us. Immediately a man takes responsibility, the power of God will come to his help, what to do? To give him ideas. It's God working in you, to will and to do what He wants. He'll give you ideas, He'll give you insight, He'll give you wisdom. He'll give you perspective, He'll give you ideas, He'll give you ability to make decisions, in consultation with your wife - add that bit in there, just in case you think it's all a one man thing. [Laughter] We'll talk about the partnership later on. The second thing that'll happen is, you'll find intense pressure and resistance come from the spirit world. Everything, every devil, will try and stop you taking your place in God's order; because you can say: Jesus is Lord over your family until the cows come home. A parrot could say it, and it'd have about as much effect.
At the end of the day, Jesus becomes Lord of your family, when you take your position as head of the woman. That's when the lordship of Jesus becomes established, when you submit to Christ, and you take your rightful place of assuming responsibility. Once you embrace responsibility in your heart, and you begin to pray, you begin to walk out those responsibilities, God's power comes into the whole deal, the whole deal. You can change people, without even having to do too much, once the power of God is flowing on your behalf; but to do that, you've got to stand up. Every devil in hell, will stop men standing up. Every demon of witchcraft - as we'll see a little bit later - will come and try and stop a man standing up and praying regularly, consistently for his wife and children, standing up and taking responsibility of the home. The devils will come, they'll try and push on you, to make you feel inadequate, as though you've got no ideas, you're useless, you're hopeless. They'll push everything against you; but friend, if a man will stand up and hold the position God has given him - you've got to understand this, that spiritual warfare is about getting you out of two places: one, out of your relationship with Christ; and two, out of the position God called you to be.
The battle is to just stand up, and believe what God says, and to embrace that call, that responsibility to give leadership to your home - not to lord it over them, but to lead them, as Christ led. He loved. You know, He washed the disciple's feet. Perhaps some of the men, it'd be a good idea if you went home and offered to wash your wife's feet. [Laughter] Be a change of attitude, of sitting there and waiting for her to come round and wait on you. A lot of men come home, they expect their wives to wait on them. God says: you're the leader, you're the servant leader; so you not only give direction, you learn to serve. You pick up some of the responsibilities. You help around the place. You get involved, you don't just: well I've done my bit out there, I come home, you do it all here. That's an ungodly thing, that comes out of culture; it's got nothing to do with the Bible.