Becoming a Kingdom Power Couple

Power couples: they dominate the media and we love them for it. Like the recent marriage of Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle—now the Duke & Duchess of Sussex—power couples have confidence, authority, influence, money, separately successful careers, and good looks. All eyes dart to them when they walk into a room together.

They’re just as powerful together, if not more powerful, as they are separately. It’s fun to watch celebrity power couples work their magic. They’re like a single bolt of lightning, striking us from two hearts.

We’re fascinated when they disagree and relieved when they make up. We know who many of them are, whether we think they’re using their power for good or for evil: Jay-Z & Beyoncé, Bill & Melinda Gates, the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, Barack & Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt, President Donald & Melania Trump.

There are classic power couples from previous generations. Think of Antony & Cleopatra, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz Jr., Prince Charles & Lady Diana, Sonny & Cher, and John & Jackie Kennedy.

Power couples have been around since God invented mankind. Of course, there’s the First Couple Ever, Adam & Eve. Later, we learn of Abraham & Sarah, David & Bathsheba, and Priscilla & Aquilla. You can’t leave out notorious couples like Ahab & Jezebel or Ananias & Sapphira.

The world’s definition of a power couple and the biblical description of a power couple don’t differ too much. What makes the outcomes different are the value systems that influence their decisions.

The Biblical principles of relationships, success, maturity, and more significantly impact the dynamics of a romantic relationship in the kingdom of God. The Word of God informs it, the Spirit of God empowers it, and the people of God pray for and influence it.

It’s Not Just About Us Anymore

When two followers of Jesus start dating with a goal to get married, they soon discover it’s not just about themselves individually or as a couple. It’s about continuing to honor God in their relationships with the Lord in their separate spiritual lives. And it’s about glorifying the Lord together as a team. “He must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30) is an apt rallying cry for serious Christians dating.

If you two ever want to have some serious fun and significance in your lives together, determine that you are going to practice the spiritual principles that will make you effective, together, for the kingdom of God. The power of God displayed through two kingdom warriors totally committed to glorifying the Lord together is not a static sum total; it is dynamic and exponential.

Are You Both Single-Hearted for Christ’s Cause?

The principles you practice as a dating couple establish the habits you two will build your marriage on; make them good ones! As you build positive and spiritual decisions and habits into your relationship, you will start the process rolling of bringing an exponential threat to the darkness.

You will become mighty in spirit together, unstoppable, united in purpose and vision. God is looking for couples like that—couples who are willing to be used by the Lord for His kingdom, His people, and His purposes. He will always use a couple who is not afraid of the consequences of following Him together for a good greater than themselves.

Many Christian couples are anxious to get to the altar so that they can “just be” an ordinary couple, living out a mundane existence together, occasionally punctuated by a spiritual event. If only they knew they could live for the kingdom of God in such a way that the forces of hell would freak out at the spiritual light they emitted and the power they carried with heaven!

When every enemy can see you two coming because of the power, love, and light pulsating from your spirits together, and they start trying to distract and take you down, know that you have become a kingdom power couple.

I see two warriors fighting the enemy back to back and doggedly holding their ground until angelic reinforcements arrive and cause the last few demons to flee. Something like that end scene from Lord of the Rings with Frodo and Sam on the Mount of Doom, huddling together and thinking this is where they will die, comes to mind.

Start Practicing These Now While You’re Dating

1. The primary priority: Make sure your life goals and ministries are aligned and going in the same direction. How can two walk together unless they agree? Amos 3:3
2. Spiritual disciplines. Weave your spiritual lives together under the skillful guidance of a holy and loving God. Go to church together regularly. Read and study your Bibles together regularly. Pray with each other and for each other regularly. Serve in at least one ministry together regularly. Keyword: regularly.
3. Community. Smart couples quickly learn that “we” are more important than “me.” Learn to make important decisions together.
4. Communication. Communicate routinely and effectively. Learn to make time together a priority so that you can communicate and enjoy each other’s company.
5. Sharing. Learn to share responsibilities as well as attention and power. Support each other’s careers and any separate ministries. Adam and Eve originally shared their responsibilities equally, and so can you.
6. Sacrifice. Learn to sacrificially serve each other, and, as a couple, serve others. That’s how others will know you both belong to Jesus.
7. Conflict resolution. Let God’s love for you teach you how to resolve conflicts without the same person giving in all the time. Listening, clarifying, and negotiating are not the same as arguing, compromising, and capitulating. When a conflict is resolved properly, both sides win.
8. Strengths perspective. Encourage and work with each other’s strengths. Build up and lean on their strengths. Help guard their hearts and weaknesses.
9. Distractions. There will be distractions. You will begin to recognize them sooner than later as they become more regular, until the enemy realizes these tactics will no longer work.
10. Back-up. Back each other up. Refuse to gossip behind each other’s backs. Refer to your sweetheart often in conversations with the opposite sex, and try not to spend time alone together with the opposite sex. Such cautions have saved many marriages, including Billy & Ruth Graham’s.