Men Return Home in Humility and with Prayer

We did a ground-breaking action during our anniversary service by calling all men who were willing to return home, to come out, to each hold a white flag and kneel before God in confession and repentance of sin. That was a breathtaking scene to behold, and it was totally by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The book Man Return Home (Part2) had just been completed before our church anniversary and I began to feel relaxed as the task was accomplished. But unexpectedly a new journey opened up as soon as the anointing of C-Mo came. As the senior pastor of the church, I was to humble myself and confess sins together with priests and Levites and lead all men to return home. Indeed we were making a covenant, showing that we were willing to accept the help of our wives and to lead our families and all creation to be one in Christ. Our branch churches also connected with us online to return home together.

The journey home is a process of continuously dealing with the self. It’s not necessarily earth-shaking, but it’s not easy either. One of my disciples Jason made a lot of effort to celebrate Mother’s Day with his wife, sending flowers and cakes and treating her to a nice meal. While he felt very satisfied with what he had done, his wife asked for a card. His self-defense mechanism was activated at once. He explained to her that he was just discharged from the hospital, that he was busy preparing the sermon, and so on. He piled on the reasons as to why he was unable to understand what she meant. When he laid himself down and was willing to listen to her heart, it brought a big breakthrough in their relationship.

Another disciple of mine Eben also used to be very self-centered. Right on the night of their wedding day, seeing his wife leave the floor wet, after washing hair, he blamed her and said, “are you waiting to be scolded in our marriage?” He had been a believer for many years and yet did not know the Truth. He used his own ways to be a husband and father, without the concept of “the wife as a helper”. Each time when confronted by his wife, his first reaction would be that he had already done a good job and she was nitpicking. Now he has tuned his thoughts gradually and found it important to lay himself down. Today his relationship with his wife and children is becoming better and better.

In fact, laying down oneself for the purpose of getting one’s wife fulfilled is already self-fulfilling, i.e., fulfilling the “self” in the new being through two becoming one flesh. As Christ has laid Himself down to have mankind fulfilled, He has been fulfilling the “Self” within Himself as Head and the Church as His Body from the beginning into eternity. When I lay myself down as the senior pastor to have my wife and our church fulfilled, I’m fulfilling myself and becoming complete. Laying down oneself and holding the white flag, praying in humility, is the beginning of bringing all creation into Christ. If everything we do is to satisfy our own needs, we cannot become a tree of life as God desires us to be. Our lives would be self-satisfying and not complete.

May all brothers endeavor to embrace the help of their wives instead of trying to save face, to align themselves with the Tree of Life and return home in greater capacity so that we will be more complete and God will be glorified. ■【2023.06.25】