We have been praying for months for revival in our church, our homes and our city. We have followed the Psalms of ascents, going closer to God. We have prayed for our ‘dreams to come true’. Tonight our theme was the success of our homes, the godly marriages and families with children. There was opposition to our prayers.The devil wants us to ignore the need for intercession for our families. But we did our best in prayer and trust that the Holy Spirit will continue the work in the hearts of the people of God! This was the message:

“Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep” (Ps 127:1-2)

This is a Psalm written by King Solomon. It describes the beauty and power of a godly spiritual and victorious family! It can be applied to your natural family; father, mother and children. It can also be applied to the spiritual family, in particular your local church, as a part of the Universal Body of Christ. It describes spiritual parents, mentors, teachers or pastors who invest their lives in other people, thru the Word of God and by personal example. This family is a spiritual unit that God blesses and becomes stronger with time.

This is a song of ascent! It does not seem to do so! The interest of the family does not seem like ‘ascending’! After praying for months about ‘dreams to come true’ this looks like going down not up. But God wants us to have a deeper revelation of the grace, beauty and sweetness of marriage and family life with children, with grandchildren. The word ‘ascent’ means to go on a journey to a higher place or degree and promotion. Therefore a godly happy home is counted as a greater achievement than all the material blessings combined.

The most important lesson here is this: human labor without the Holy Spirit is useless. It is in vain. In Hebrew, the word ‘vain’ means a lie, something evil, destructive, useless, deceptive and false. It also means vanity and idolatry. The root of the word describes a storm that destroys everything in its path. It means without God, all our work, watching and worrying, will only be able to build sand castles in the path of the coming hurricanes. These labors and dreams will not last. Their fall, their destruction is sure and it means painful loss and danger to all. Without God, human labor ends in failure! That is the source of much sorrow to many!

This a great lesson: No matter how hard you work, how much educated you are, and skillful or talented you are, you cannot guarantee your prosperity in this life! It is God who blesses (or not) the work of your hands! There is no true success without God. But with God all things are possible and success assured!