Today, we are going to look at THE
POWER OF AGREEMENT. In Matthew 18:19 Jesus said, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall
agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it
shall be done for them of [by] My Father which is in heaven.”
Jesus looked ahead to a new day when He would be present with His
followers not in body, but through His Holy Spirit.
In the body of believers (the church), the sincere agreement of two
people in prayer is more powerful than the superficial agreement of thousands,
because Christ’s Holy Spirit is with them.
Two believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, will pray according to God’s
will, and not according to their own will; thus, their requests will certainly be
granted.
In Matthew 7:7-8 Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Who should you ask? God the Father!
In John 16:23 Jesus said, “...Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name,
He [God the Father] will give it you.”
In Revelations 3:20 Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if
any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup
(have super) with him, and he with Me.”
Who will do it for you? Jesus will do it for you!
In John 14:13-14 Jesus said, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that
will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask (demand)
anything in My name, I will do it.”
God the Father will also do it for you. Remember that Jesus and the Father are one.
In Matthew 18:19 Jesus said, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth
as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for
them of (by) My Father which is in heaven.”
In John 16:23 Jesus said, “...Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name,
He (God the Father) will give it you.”
How or in what name should you ask? In the Name of Jesus Christ!
In John 16:23 Jesus said, “...Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name,
He (God the Father) will give it you.”
Don’t put any limitation on that Scripture. Jesus didn’t. Let’s just
take Him at His Word.
In order for Matthew 18:19 to work, there just has to be two of us to
agree, and these two people have to be on earth. All we have to do is to agree
in line with the Word of God as touching anything we shall ask. And the Bible
says that God the Father will give it to us.
Two of you must agree according to what God has said in His Word
concerning the very issue for which you are praying.
In Amos 3:3 God said, “Can two walk
together, except they be agreed?”
In Matthew 18:18-20 Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall
agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it
shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. 20 For where two or
three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
What
is Jesus really saying in Matthew 18:18-20? Jesus is saying that when
there are two people who are agreeing in prayer, He is right there to make it
good. He is right there to make whatsoever they agreed in prayer to happen. He
is right there to bring to pass whatsoever they have agreed in prayer.
Whatsoever we bind on earth shall be
bound in Heaven and whatsoever we loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.
That is to say that whatsoever we allow on earth will be allowed by Heaven and
whatsoever we disallow on earth will be disallowed by Heaven. In other words,
Heaven will back us up in whatever we pray on earth in agreement, as long as it
is in line with the Word of God. We have the authority to allow or to disallow.
Now this is how it works: When two Christians
have the same amplitude, both
of them are said to be in resonance or agreement.
What
is amplitude?
In physics, amplitude is defined
as the absolute value of the maximum displacement from a zero point during one
period of an oscillation (a
single swing or movement in one direction of an oscillating body).
What
does it mean to oscillate? To oscillate
means to swing (or move) to and fro as a pendulum does.
The two Christians can add up to
produce a much bigger effect than any of them alone can ever produce. This
final effect is called a synergistic
effect.
They can interfere with each other
either constructively or destructively. When they interfere with each other
constructively, a synergistic effect appears. When they interfere with each
other destructively, the result is a straight line which represents no effect.
This is what the Bible means when it
says that one will chase one thousand but two will put ten thousand to flight
(Deut. 32:20). This can only hold if the two are in agreement. It is this
agreement in the spirit that produces what I call the spiritual synergistic
effect which chases the ten thousand.
You see, as individuals, each person
can put only one thousand to flight. If their individual result is added up, we
get two thousand. But when both of these individuals are in resonance (in
agreement about what God has said concerning a particular situation) they can
put ten thousand to flight.
That is to say that the spiritual
synergistic effect did an extra job of putting eight thousand to flight, a job
that no one of the individuals could have done on his own.
Notice this:
In Romans 12:15-16 Jesus said, “Rejoice with
them that rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one
another.”
If you rejoice with them that rejoice,
you interfere constructively and your own miracle is on the way.
Why? Both of you together have
produced an effect 8000 times bigger than what one person alone could have
produced.
This difference of 8000 constitutes
the power that will give you your own miracle.
If you interfere destructively by
getting angry or grumbling because God has blessed someone else, you interfere
destructively, and you cancel your own miracle. Wao!
This is what Jesus meant in Matthew
18:19-20 when He said, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is
in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am
there in the midst of them.”
This is also what is going on with the
power of agreement stated in Psalm 133:1 which says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil
upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on
the edge of his garments. 3 It is as refreshing as the dew of Hermon,
descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the
blessing--Life forevermore.”
How wonderful it is, how pleasant,
when brothers (a wife and a husband) live together in harmony! For harmony is
as precious as the fragrant anointing oil that was poured over Aaron’s head,
that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe.
Harmony is as refreshing as the dew
from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion. And the Lord has
pronounced His blessing, even life forevermore.
In a home where the husband and the
wife are in resonance [agreement], you’ll find peace and great accomplishments.
But when they are not in agreement (as you can sense when they have different
accounts, sleep in different rooms) they interfere destructively.
In Amos 3:3 the Bible says, “Can
two work together except they be agreed?”
That is to say that two people cannot
work together except they are in resonance (agreement) with each other.
You can now understand what God means
by saying in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Do not be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And
what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with
Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement
has the temple of
God with idols? For you
are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them
and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people." 17
Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not
touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." 18 "I will be a Father to you, and you
shall be My sons and daughters…."
The
prayer of agreement works. Jesus said that it would be done once any two of
us can agree on earth concerning anything in line with God’s Word. The prayer
of agreement will always work
because it is God’s Word.
Two people in agreement can put 10,000 to flight. You
may be mighty in prayer alone, but you will be mightier when someone else of
the same mind-set joins you. When two people who are of one mind-set
come together and pray, a co-operate unction causes the result to manifest
faster. The Bible says, “One
will chase 1000, and two will chase 10,000” (Lev. 26:8; Deut. 32:30).
Deuteronomy 32:30 says, “How should one
chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their
Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?”
In other words, you can do ten times
as much with someone agreeing with you as you can by yourself alone. A
husband and wife can become mighty partners in prayer. If the marriage is
sound, you couldn’t agree with anyone else better than your spouse because both
of you are one.
Examples of the power of agreement abound
in the Scriptures: The power of
agreement will:
- Free you from prison. Paul and Silas were freed from prison because of the power of agreement. The Bible says that at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God and the Holy Ghost came down (Acts 16:25-26);
- Bring victory to your life. It brought victory to Moses (Ex. 17:8-13);
- Cause you to triumph over temptation (Matt. 26:36-41);
- Help you to make a decision (Acts 1:14-24);
- Cause the power of God to manifest in a great measure ((Acts 2:1-2);
- Cause miracles to happen (Acts 3:1-7). Peter and John were in agreement.
- Cause great power to fall when you pray (Acts 4:31-33);
- Bring abundance into your life. It drives away the spirit of lack from your life (Acts 4:34);
- Cause someone that is in prison to come out of it. Peter came out of prison because the church prayed the prayer of agreement for his deliverance (Acts 12:5-11). James was killed because no one prayed for him. There are ministers today who have fallen because no one prayed for them;
- In Ephesians 6:18 the church is requested to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
- Bring open doors (Col 4:2-3);
- Make God’s Word to have free access. It will also protect you from the enemy (2 Thess. 3:1-2).
Acts 16:20-25 says, “And brought
them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble
our city, 21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither
to observe, being Romans. 22 And the multitude rose up together against them:
and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23 And
when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailor to keep them safely: 24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust
them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. 25 And
at midnight Paul and Silas PRAYED, and SANG PRAISES UNTO GOD: and THE PRISONERS
HEARD THEM.”
Paul and Silas were in jail. They had
been whipped, and their backs were bleeding. Their feet were in stocks. They
were in the innermost prison (v. 24). But it says that at midnight, Paul and
Silas prayed. That is a good time to pray!
Midnight can be symbolic of times of
trials in our lives. It can be “midnight” in your life even when it is
daytime. That is a good time to pray –
when you are faced with tests and trials. At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed,
and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
You see, the prisoners heard Paul and
Silas praying and praising God. So Paul and Silas weren’t quiet in their
prayers.
There
is power in agreement prayer. As Paul and Silas were praying and
singing praises to God in one accord, something happened – God wrought a mighty
deliverance.
Acts 16:26 says, “And suddenly
there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were
shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were
loosed.”
Realize that that earthquake did not
shake any other building in that town, but only that very prison where two
believers were praying and praising God in one accord.
The Bible says that the foundations of
that prison were shaken. Every door in that jail flung open. The stocks came
off Paul and Silas’ feet. Paul and Silas were loosed from their bonds.
Also, as a result of what the power of
God did that night because of the agreement prayer of Paul and Silas, the
jailer and his entire family were saved and baptized in water. This is what the power of agreement can do.
When some people find themselves in
such conditions, they will say, “Let’s
just leave everything to the Lord.” If Paul and Silas did that, I assure
you that they would have continued to suffer in silence. But they chose to pray
in ONE ACCORD and sing praises
to God! As a result, God heard them and delivered them.
Your understanding of the place of the power of agreement will help you to
enjoy victory in every area of your life.
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
Thanks wonderful friends for reading. Feel free to drop your comments below and be a part of the conversation.
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