Navigating the seven seasons of marriage restoration: Resurrection, Restoration, and Reconciliation

God created marriages, and His ways of establishing and cultivating them are the best. Marriages frequently go through seasons that mirror books in the Bible. Every season has its own purpose and includes spiritual battles.

1. The Genesis season

Purpose: Similar to Genesis, this marks the start when God discloses the individual He has chosen for you. While you might not hear a literal voice from above, God communicates in various ways. He speaks through peace, His Holy Spirit, His word, dreams, visions, people, discernment, or confirmations.

Warfare: Attacks against clarity and God’s voice, doubt.

2. The Job season

Purpose: The enemy excels at stealing, killing, and destroying.

Initially, you might be unaware of the ongoing warfare, puzzled by why everything seems to be unravelling. Arguments begin, conflicts arise, and you might find yourself questioning your decisions, perhaps even questioning God. This is a time of profound pain and intense questioning.

Warfare: Lack of clarity, you have been thrown into a battle you may know nothing about.

3. The Hosea Season

Purpose: This season marks the end of the marriage or relationship. Like Hosea, you experience the breaking of the covenant. Separation occurs physically or otherwise. Your husband/wife may separate from you physically, emotionally, or mentally. You discover truth, betrayal, and you must decide whether to stand in the gap for restoration of the relationship or separate for good. God begins to communicate or gives you instructions about your Love story.

Warfare: Attacks against your heart (not literal), doubt, confusion, and wounds open up.

4. The Daniel Season

Purpose: The humbling is the season where you go through a Nebuchadnezzar experience, a humbling under God’s hand. This is often marked by consequences of your past actions; God will chastise and discipline you, which leads to repentance and awakening. The aim is for your heart to soften and return to God. Daniel also represents purpose, elevation, doors and gates opening, and obedience leading to blessings. This season is marked by the start of the transformation of the heart as you get closer to God and to understand the nature and character of God, His laws, principles and commandments. As you grow in God and in wisdom, you discover your purpose, your calling, your assignment on earth.

Warfare: Alignment, disobedience, attacks on assignment, procrastination, doubt

5. The Nehemiah Season

Purpose: This season is all about rebuilding yourself, the relationship and your purpose. This is the season of construction, where God begins to rebuild: trust, identity, faulty foundations. The enemy fights hard here, just like Sanballat and Tobiah. There is fear, distractions, and spiritual warfare trying to stop the rebuild. If you are married, you will begin to see the reasons why your marriage fell apart, the generational curses, word curses, and the relationship built on a faulty foundation, not in God. You should also be building your relationship with God as you get to know him. God teaches you how to fight spiritually.

Warfare: Sabotage and discouragement

6. The Jeremiah season

Purpose: This season is a wilderness back-and-forth season. Like Jeremiah, there is wrestling, tears, and emotional conflict. More healing, more exposure of wounds, idols, cleansing, purging. God is fighting for you. The enemy knows you are close; he does not want you restored. Attacks on the mind, leading to rebellion and disobedience, giving up seems great.

Warfare: disobedience, discouragement, rebellion, resisting backwardness.

7. The Ezekiel season

Purpose: The final season is about cleansing, judgment, resurrection, and restoration.

Ezekiel represents the cleaning-up stage. God begins to clean you up for reconciliation with your person. It is the stage where God corrects your person. Resurrection of the dead things in the relationship. A new heart, a new spirit, covenant restored, final reconciliation. This is the season of new life, where God puts everything in order and restores the marriage to His original design.

Warfare: Staying in alignment with God, resisting old patterns, walking in the new covenant, protecting what God has restored.