Rules of Engagement: Preparing for a Kingdom Marriage

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Preparing for a Kingdom Marriage

Rein Johnson

Published by HeReinz Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 by Rein Johnson

ISBN: 9781311282330

Requests for information should be addressed to:

HeReinz Ministries, LLC

E: [email protected]

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the New International Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc. Wheaton Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (Voice) are taken from The Voice version of the Bible. All rights reserved.

Cover and interior design: By Heireina Johnson for Logoi Publishing House

Other marriage resources/cited works are credited to:

Don & Sally Meredith, for Two Becoming One & God’s Three Purposes for Marriage, www.crosswalk.com, n.p., n.d.

Joyce Meyer, When God’s Timing is Taking too Long, www.joycemeyer.org, n.p., n.d.

Living a Celibate Lifestyle, nowword.org, n.p., n.d.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

DEDICATIONS

I dedicate this book first to God who has blessed me immeasurably and without whom I am nothing. I thank You Abba for cleansing and sending me. Thank You for exposing me to Kingdom and choosing me to share that message with the world.

To all of my readers both new and old, thank you. If not for your support, these works could not progress. I appreciate wholeheartedly that this and every other book I have written has made it into your hands whether by hard copy or by app; it means the world to me.

To my mom, Evangelist Yuvetta Pryor, and to my little (big) sister Drea Pryor, I am grateful for our journey thus far, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Without it, we would not know great. The best is yet to come. Thank God for the many healing conversations and transitions. It is miracle time now.

To my children, thank you for bearing with me while I learned the tough lessons. It matters. I am grateful and honored to have been chosen by God to bring you into this world. I wouldn’t change a thing. Mommy loves you dearly. You will always be my babies.

CONTENTS

Dedications

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: You Have A Yes Already

Chapter Two: Marriage Has a Purpose

Chapter Three: Who are You?

Chapter Four: Law of Attraction

Chapter Five: You Don’t Have to Date to Find It

Chapter Six: There’s Proof

Chapter Seven: How Will I Know?

Chapter Eight: Loneliness & Sexual Urges

Chapter Nine: If you must Date

Chapter Ten: Pray & Plan for Your Mate

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Other Books By Rein Johnson

INTRODUCTION

"Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.…" ~ Jeremiah 6:16

Thank you for stopping here. If you are like me, you skip the introduction or maybe glance through it before getting to the heart of the matter. I totally understand. I don’t like to waste a lot of time with the preliminaries either, but I appreciate that you did stop here because I have some things I would like to share before you dive in. It should also be stated that it is assumed you are reading this because you are interested in or know someone else who is interested in the end result of marriage. This book speaks to that as an end result and takes all concepts discussed herein in context of walking toward marriage specifically.

Defining Kingdom

First let’s begin with defining Kingdom. We hear that word so often and I’ve discovered that many don’t understand what it even means. I too was baffled by it. Every time I thought I had a grip on the definition, turns out I was wrong, so I want to take my sweet time to pour out to you what God revealed to me about Kingdom, because I believe that when you really get this in your spirit, it will not only change your perception about dating, but it will change your perspective about your life overall. Bear with me as we go back to the beginning and break it down. Trust me, it will be useful as you delve into the rest of this book.

How many times have you heard the scripture quoted from Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you? What exactly are these things? Let’s back up and get the entire context beginning at verse 25 and we will finish it out with verse 34 so that you hear Jesus’ entire message on the subject of seeking specifically.

Matthew 6:25-34 NIV Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food or the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single day to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry saying, What shall we eat?’ or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

It all seems so simple right? At first glance Jesus seems to be telling me to put my confidence and faith in God—to stop stressing right? Well, yes in a sense, but if that is the message then how is kingdom defined? Complete reliance on God? Yes! For what? All my needs. So what defines Kingdom? The place where God is and where all my needs are met. Yes! You’re getting it. So I’m supposed to seek it? Yes! How? Bingo! There’s the problem! If we seek based on what we think, we miss God completely! We are not simply seeking God for our basic needs to be met. That’s what the church has subconsciously taught us. We end up living a life that only pursues God for what we perceive we cannot handle or pursues God for what we believe will solve our problem. As an example, we perceive we need money for many reasons. We pray for jobs because that’s how you earn it on earth, but God can provide for you with our without doing it through a job. Our limited thinking keeps us bound to the earth realm and all of its ways when we are actually kingdom citizens! Jesus’ message was so profoundly greater than what we perceive. Many of us devote ourselves to church, to church activities and roles within the church thinking that this is our way of seeking through demonstrating faithfulness and trust by works. That’s ritual and religion, not kingdom, and my friends I made this same grave mistake! So what’s the point Rein? Glad you asked. Let’s take the journey now.

Seeking the kingdom requires that you first understand that you are not of this world. This will require that you go back to Genesis 1 & 2 and revisit the colorful depiction of the creation of humankind. Humankind was originally more of a spirit being than human—another aspect of God pulled out of the mind of God and given the breath of life and flesh. Why does this matter? We often see ourselves as solely human. This makes sense because from the time we exited the womb of our parents we have lived a human and earthly experience with very little presence of God in our midst except that which we were exposed to in church. Humanity is more normal to us than being spiritual beings because after the fall of man, humankind lost that intimate connection and close proximity to God wherein God used to walk and talk with man at the cool of the day in the garden. So, we’ve developed the world’s mindset essentially as a result of what is named as a curse upon us for the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

Jesus came to take the burden of the earthly mindset away, and to restore our intimate fellowship with God, not to start a religion. Jesus came to give us back dominion of the earth, and to remind us that we are spirit beings first, with more authority than we often exercise. Unfortunately, many of us don’t see ourselves as close to God or that we even can be because knowledge of how to develop that intimacy and the freedom to do so is often stifled within religion. That’s an entirely different book.

God existed before all things, as we know them. He is Elohim, the Creator of ALL. Before anything there was God and what was in God’s mind (see also John 1:1). When God created light, He only spoke light forth. Light came forth and didn’t argue with God. It just was because God said it! It didn’t say, Darn it God how come you didn’t make me a rainbow? It had no concept of being anything else but light. It didn’t even ask for its properties. Everything we know about the speed of light, the brightness of light, the way colors form as light bends, the reflection of light, the heat of light, and the light of day was all in the mind of God and came out of the mouth of God with one sentence… Let there be light!

God created humankind with the same concept. From the creative mind of God came Let us make man in our own image, and as God brought man forth with a word and the dust of the ground came bones and marrow, skin and tissue, muscles and organs, blood and cells, reproductive properties, and even self preservation within the body to slow the death process and heal itself – all with the thought of Let us make man. He didn’t necessarily speak every cell or bone into place; His mind had a plan that was executed in one sentence.

So it is true with every species of bird, every blade of grass, every fish in the sea, and every species of flower. So it is true with you! Herein is the point. You were not only born on Earth, as you believe. You were born in the mind of God in the realm of heaven first then planted in the womb to be born of flesh. The Bible in Isaiah 46:10 "He makes known the end from the beginning… Before you were planted in the womb, your entire life was spoken and created in heaven. When God said, Let there be Rein," if you will, that wasn’t just my name and existence in the womb, there was a life planned for me; a kingdom destiny that I was put on this earth to fulfill. You are not some haphazard design. You are an intentional birth, just as the first man was, to accomplish something God put you here to do that would bring glory (great awareness) of Him to the world. You are a walking example of God in the earth, and in order for the glory to be seen through you; you have an obligation to seek the kingdom mind for your life in order to know what your divine purpose is in order to live it out. What was the blue print in the spirit realm prior to your natural birth? Trust me, we think we know based on our interest and what we are drawn to, but these things are but a modicum of life in the kingdom and can lead you to many career choices and ventures in life, and you can feel blessed doing these things and utilizing these talents, but it is possible to be wildly successful at the wrong thing.

As an example, I had a love for people early, a passion for justice, I had a knack for new ideas and writing, I was a keen organizer, and I had the anointing to influence others. Setting order was natural for me. Resolving issues was also natural for me. Telling the blunt truth wasn’t hard for me either. Human Resources seemed like the perfect opportunity for me as a career. I spent seventeen (plus) years wildly successful at being an executive, but the blue print for my life was full time ministry by way of stepping into the office of a prophet and travelling the world on crusades and missions trips. I will not lie to you. Walking away from what I thought made me look successful to others and feel personally accomplished was harder than anything I imagined.

My mindset had to change. I knew I had a call to preach since the age of seven. I was already doing that, except church was my secondary life outside work and school and family. When God decided to rearrange my life and set me on the right path, I had to adjust to being a spiritual being living out God’s intended will for my life. I had to adjust to trusting God to provide for my children and me without leaning on a job for income and other provisions. I had to adjust to doing more with very little while God stretched me to trust Him completely. I had to adjust to not depending on myself to make things happen and instead solely obey God. I also had to fully rely on God to go do missions and crusades with no tangible evidence He would provide, but He did it every single time! It took me giving up everything I had and free-falling into God with no parachute, but after all the kicking and screaming, I realized I never hit the ground. God was always there taking care of me in major ways. He was showing me that by His way there was never any lack.