Sid: Now I recently read a book and I am so, so, so excited over it because one in two marriages in Christian homes are ending up in divorce. There is something wrong with that picture! Not only does God hate divorce, but he wants your marriages to be what He’s called them to be. What a witness they are to Jewish people and all people. And my guest has written a book, his name is Craig Hill. I have him on the telephone; I’m speaking to him by way of phone in his office in Littleton, Colorado. And he has written a book of his supernatural communication between husbands and wives and supernatural communication with all people. And I have to tell you, there are principals in this book that I have never seen before that wherever your marriage is its going to be transformed. Now Craig, the title it’s an interesting title it’s called, “Two Fleas No Dog” and it’s a couple sitting on beautiful green grass looking at beautiful blue water and next to them is a shadow of a dog. And again the title is “Two Fleas No Dog” what does that mean?
Craig: Well Sid, if we start with the subtitle, transform your marriage from Fleadom to Freedom. I know it sort of an interesting title. For years I was speaking to people and especially to single young people. And I said, before people get married they are like a flea; and a flea is an animal that’s looking for a big dog that it can light on. It basically a parasitic animal looking to another animal to get its needs met. And I told people, many, many single people are like a flea and when they find a person they marry they actually think that they found that host animal that they can attach to and get all their needs met. And then sadly after they get married it seems like that’s just not the case and they’re, they’re dreams and hopes are shattered, there are a lot of arguments, there are a lot of wounding and hurt between them and I wondered why is that? And what people have found out; many many people is that after they got married they thought that person they married was a big host animal that would just meet all their needs, but they sadly found out after they got married that person that I have married is actually not the dog, not the host animal I thought they were that would meet all my needs, that person is actually a flea. And now the fact of the matter is we have two fleas and no dog because the person I married thought I was the dog that was going to meet all their needs; and of course in reality nobody was designed to meet 100% of another person’s needs.
Sid: But, but wait a second Craig, I understand that for nonbelievers in Jesus, non-disciples of Jesus. But why should this divorce rate be as high if not higher among believers in Jesus?
Craig: I think what we find Sid, is in human relationships people wound each other, people hurt each other and don’t even realize that they’re doing that, don’t even understand how it happens or why it happens. And I think a big part of the reason is that even believers who would claim that Yeshua maybe is their source of life, in reality in their marriage are looking to a husband or looking to a wife to be that source of life to them and then when that person disappoints them they get hurt, they get wounded, they get angry, they close up, they withdraw or they lash out and fight back. And that seems to happen just as much to believers and to disciples as it does to people who don’t even have a relationship with God at all.
Sid: Now Craig as I understand it the principals you teach from are not theory, they’ve actually been worked in your marriage and many other marriages. But let’s take you back to 1975, you have a job as a pilot, you’re copiloting a Learjet, flying US mail in early 1975 and what happened?
Craig: Well, we had an interesting experience back in January of 1975 on the way back from Chicago to Grand Rapid’s Michigan as we were flying back across Lake Michigan air traffic control told us it’s getting very foggy in Michigan and you might consider turning back to Chicago. But both of us looked at each other and said, nay we don’t want to sit all day in Chicago in the airport; I bet we can beat the fog in. And we attempted to do that in Grand Rapids we made two instrument approaches and when we got down to the minimum altitude we saw nothing but clouds, no runway, no lights and on the first approach the low fuel lights came on and both of realized we had made a mistake. Now we didn’t have enough fuel to make it back to Chicago and we weren’t able to land at Grand Rapids so we quickly asked, “W what other airport is open?” They said, “Lancing,” we blasted over to Lansing, ended up missing two instrument approaches there not able to see the ground at all. Now we were really low on fuel and I was beginning to fear for my life! And we said, “What else is open?” They said, “Detroit.” So we blasted over to Detroit and landed with just minutes of fuel left. I never had so low fuel before or since in an airplane. Any way about five-six months after that I went on a mission trip with Youth with a Mission in Europe and met a young woman who later actually became my wife. And as we were going through the process of getting to know each other and talk with each other in the Fall of that year, 1975 I was telling her of course all my heroic stories from my life of things that had happened and I began telling her this particular story of how I’d almost perished in a Learjet by running out of fuel. And she said, “I’ve got to ask you two questions.” I said, “Okay, what are those?” She said, “Were you both wearing light blue one piece life suits?” I said, “Yea.” She said, “Was the other guy quite a bit older than you the other pilot?” I said, “Yea, but why would you ask that?” She said, “We prayed for you.” I said, “Wait, a minute, what do you mean you prayed for me, this was back in January of 1975, I didn’t even meet you until July, how could you have prayed for me?” And she began to tell me a story that every day in their YWAM School, they have a time of intercession as a small group and they would, rather than just praying their shopping list of things they wanted to pray for the would ask the Lord, “God, what is it that you want us to pray for, what’s on your heart? And many times they would get nations, they would get various missionaries, they would get various people. But this one day, one of the things that came to their mind to pray for was just the word airplane. And as they began seeking God, then saying “God, what do you want us to pray we don’t know anything about an airplane?” They began to get supernatural pieces of a puzzle that the Holy Spirit put together for them and one person said, “I feel like this is a small airplane, but it’s a jet, it’s a very fast like United Airlines.” Another person said, “I see two people on board and their only just a pilot and a copilot and they’re carrying the US mail.” Another person said, “I see that these two people are wearing light blue one piece jumpsuits; one is old and one is young.” And another person, my wife, the girl that became my wife Jan said, “I see a map of the Great Lakes area and I see that this airplane is in the Great Lakes area and the problem is that it’s very foggy, the weathers bad, their having difficulty finding a place to land; we need to pray an release in the Spirit a place for this airplane to land and to pray for the safety of the crew.” So this small group that was actually in the Bible School in Germany was praying at 9:00 in the morning or so and they prayed that through until they felt a release in the Spirit that okay, we’ve accomplished that, we’re done with that. And then they moved on to another topic. And as I was sharing this story with Jan, about six eight months later, she said, we prayed for you and the Holy Spirit had quickened to her that that very event was the thing that they had prayed for. The strange thing was, after that particular prayer meeting, one of the girls in the group came up to Jan and said, you know that airplane we prayed for this morning?” Jan said, “Yes.” She said, “I really felt in the Spirit that had something to do with you.”
Sid: And she ends up being your wife!
Craig: And she ends up being my wife!
Sid: This had to revolutionize your faith level for prayer after hearing that story.
Craig: Well, it really did and I thought that is way that we ought to be praying is asking God what to pray. I really believe Sid, that God has designed everyone of us to live supernatural lives and not natural lives.
Sid: Oh, I have to ask you a question, do you believe we’d be talking to each other today if they had not prayed?
Craig: I think probably not and we would have…
Sid: How low was your fuel?
Craig: Well, our fuel was down to minutes, we probably had three, four, five minutes left and I really believe that that small group that got that supernatural revelation from God saved my life that day.
Sid: If you did not have that prayer with three or four minutes left and what if it had been fogged in Detroit?
Craig: If it had been fogged in Detroit then we would have had to land somewhere with absolutely no visibility and with the equipment that we had on board at that time in 1975 there is a very low chance that we would have survived the crash because we would not been able to find the runway really very effectively.
Sid: Okay, so you get married to Jan it’s obviously God’s called you to be together. You both love God; you both have common calls on your life. You both are into the Bible; how could you have problems in your marriage?
Craig: That’s exactly the same thing that I thought and actually what I thought Sid for the first seven years of my marriage, because we would wound each other, hurt each other. My experience was that Jan would close up and withdraw from me and then I would try to pursue her and say, “What’s wrong, what’s wrong?” And she wouldn’t answer me and she was obviously hurt. You know what I thought is that she just had some real serious problems from her background and that we needed, she just needed some counseling or some ministry and that would solve the problem.
Sid: Bottom line though because we’re running out to time, you thought that it was all her fault.
Craig: That’s right and what I actually discovered is the title of this book, I discovered that I was a flea. I discovered that I was selfish, that I was looking to her to meet my needs and instead of looking to the Lord, instead of looking to God to be my source I was looking to my wife to be my source. I didn’t know that, the second thing is I discovered that the enemy was using a very insidious strategy in our marriage. He was using me to actually make my wife feel like she was worthless and here’s the kicker, I did not know I was doing it.
Sid: Now, there are people listening to us right now, men and women that are saying, “If I could only get my spouse to read that book, but I don’t think I can.” What if they read the book, just party in the marriage, reads the book, could it make a difference?
Craig: I think that it would make a dramatic difference Sid, exactly as you said, “If one party gets hold of the supernatural keys that God gave me for our marriage; it only takes one person to make a supernatural difference in that marriage.”
