Let me begin by saying, this post is not doctrine. This is MY OPINION. I am not apologizing for that fact in any way, and I do intend to back my opinion up scripturally. So if you are still with me, read on.
In Acts 16:41 Paul tells Cornelius, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” That is one of the scriptures that many of us stand on when we pray for salvation for our family. And in Luke 10:27 it says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
So who is your household? Webster defines a household as being “under the same roof,” or composing a family. In biblical times, a “household” went even further. Caesar’s household, for example, was massive. If somebody said they were part of Caesar’s house they could have been a blood relative, but they could also have been a maid, kennel keeper, one of the imperial tasters, a stable boy, or even a slave (many of which were Jewish, BTW). If you have a traditional family or a blended family, even if they are not in your house ALL the time (or even if they have grown up and moved away), that is your household. I’m always going to consider my children and stepchildren, and even their children part of my household. I think most folks understand it that way and would agree with that thought.
We have already established that somebody in your “household” doesn’t have to be blood, or necessarily live at your house. There is a quote that says, “Friends are the family that you get to choose.” We have probably all heard somebody introducing a close friend as “my adopted sister” or “my adopted Mama” or the like. And we know from the scriptures that God LOVES adoption. In fact, in Matthew 18:5 Jesus says, “And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” The Word says (Ephesians 1:5) that when we are saved, it is then that He adopts us into the family of God.
So here is my assertion: In your prayers and the biblical promises that you believe and stand on, you can include your “friends that have become family” as part of your household. Why not?
Also, let me clarify that I am not talking about ALLLLLLL your friends, or even all your GOOD friends. I am talking about the rare folks, the ones that come along only seldom in one’s lifetime. I am in my mid-forties, and I have about 3 or 4 people that I have met along the way, who started out as friends, but I now consider family. These are people that have repeatedly made themselves available when my family or I needed them. These are people that know me well enough to often discern or predict a problem before I tell them. These are people who have planted themselves close, and staunchly stood with me through some of the darkest times in my life, sometimes having to travel great distances to do so. As the saying goes, they didn’t walk out the door when things got hard, they poured some coffee and pulled up a chair. They have earned the right (whether they want it or not, because our family can be a pretty crazy bunch) to be called my family.
That is not to say that I don’t have some REALLY good friends that I dearly love and pray for faithfully. I do. They are sweet wonderful people, and I am so thankful they are in my life. They are amazing friends – but still not family (and there is nothing wrong with that.)
I say all that to say this, when I pray over my household, there are certain people who have never lived under my roof and are not blood-related to anybody that DOES live under my roof, that I consider to be under that canopy. When I pray and ask for a hedge of protection around my family, I specifically include them. Some are saved, and some are not. The Word says that Believers have authority (Matthew 28:18) through Christ. It says that we can declare things in faith (2 Corinthians 4:13 and Mark 11:23), and it tells us to call things that are not as though they were. A very dear, wise friend of mine said it like this, “You are claiming your people!” And that put me in mind of Moses standing in the full authority of God, looking Pharaoh square in the face and saying, “Let my people go!” So when I ask the Lord to save my household and I declare in faith that we will all be in the kingdom of heaven, that includes them. And when I declare my family saved, delivered, sanctified, tongue-talking, fire breathing, soul-winning, world-changing saints of the Most High God, that includes them too.
I am standing on the promise that my household will be saved, my WHOLE household. I can pray and believe in faith for their salvation. God is a just God, not a dictator, therefore salvation is obviously always a personal choice. But here is the bottom line, y’all: When we are all in our heavenly home, I am going to be trotting my heavenly, resurrected, transformed self, down that gold-paved street in my heavenly house shoes, to the mansions of my “friends that have become family” and having coffee with them in their self-cleaning kitchens (because we are talking about heaven, after all.)
Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
1 Samuel 18:1 As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
Please feel free to share our posts and our blog site, and leave comments below! We are so glad you are here!