~Open in prayer~
Icebreaker
• Which three things would you bring if stranded on a tropical island?
• What’s your favorite season of the year and why?
• What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and have you followed it?
Message Review
We have talked about intercessory prayer and faith, but I want to talk today about the prayer of agreement. It’s not a deep topic and it is simply what it’s called, but the nature of agreement is not organic. Agreement is intentional. In agreement we negotiate and compromise for the greater good, which is agreement.
There are some things in the Bible that can be released only when you’re with somebody and not just when you’re by yourself. The Bible talks about what can happen with touch. Moses laid his hand on the seventy elders and put his spirit on them. There are gifts that can be passed and activated in you for no other reason than someone laying hands on you. People who pray long prayers overcompensate for the fact that they have no power. All you need is a touch.
There are things that you miss out on in this setting when you just attend church virtually. If you could get in a house and with other people, there are things that can get released there that cannot be released any other time. As a result, the power of agreement is intentional. All the enemy has to do is get you not to agree. When you don’t agree the power stops.
Read Mathew 18:15 – 18
The protocol of the Kingdom on how to deal with offenses between you and someone else are in these verses. If you’re brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Don’t share it with others and try to get them on your side. You can prevent others from getting a blessing in the church because they agreed with you about something that had nothing to do with them.
When you have an offense with someone do it alone. If he hears you and embraces your attempt to bring peace, you salvaged the relationship. If he doesn’t listen, then take with you one or two witnesses. Do not ever take the word of one because the Bible says out of the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter is established. You don’t act on it until you have multiple people give you the same information.
If he resists your attempt at peace, ask for a leader and assistance at the church to help mediate between you two. If that person still doesn’t want to have peace with you, then you have to part ways. Even in the Kingdom you cannot let the dead weight of somebody hating on you, hold you down. If you have done everything you can to make the relationship peaceful and they don’t want to embrace your efforts of peace, then Jesus says you have to walk away and wash your hands of that relationship. You cannot control other people. You can just control your response to them.
If you release grace and mercy here on earth for someone, God will release grace and mercy in heaven for you. If you withhold grace and mercy and are angry and resentful, God will withhold grace and mercy in heaven from you. If two or three agree on earth, it will be done for them in heaven by God. The Bible says when two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, He is there with them. If you want God’s presents and you want your prayers answered, you have to learn how to fix the relationships you have with others.
Earth does not respond to heaven. Heaven responds to earth. Your God is an “if then” God. For example, if you harken to the voice of God and do the commandments, then He will delight in you. On that same note, God says whatever you bind on earth, He will bind in heaven. Heaven doesn’t initiate it, heaven responds. When God gives you something, there will be an action that you’ll have to take to initiate that thing in the earth realm. Faith without works is dead. Whatever it is that you tell God you’re believing for, there is a corresponding action that goes with that faith. For example, if you’re paying for an increase in finances, you’re not going to go home and put a vacation on your credit card. There has to be an action that goes with whatever you’re believing for. God is waiting on us. When you activate the principles of the Kingdom, the needles in heaven start moving on your behalf.
What are ways you can keep your peace despite what may be going on around you?
Read Psalms 1:33
You always want to be around someone that’s greater than you so that you can catch the oil that that person has. You want to learn from that person so that you can be greater. The principle here is that whenever God sends an anointing, he sends it to the head and that oil drips down to the others below him. As a result, be happy for the financial breakthrough that someone is experiencing around you in leadership because you’re next.
The oil flows from the head down to the edge of the garment. He commands His blessing where the oil goes from the head to the rest of the body and remains pure in its essence. The blessing can’t come because it stopped with you when others misrepresent your oil.
God only commands His blessing when the oil goes from the head to the person who just got saved. When you are in charge does the oil on you permeate through the people that God has put under your stewardship? And when the least person under your stewardship has that oil, is it in the same essence and purity as when God gave it to you? That’s where the blessing comes, which is the same one as the tithe and the blessing that God gave Adam when He said be fruitful and multiply. God said I will give that kind of blessing to the place where the oil flows.
The blessings are released when we come together in unity. It takes everybody giving up something for the greater good for the power to be released when we come together. We’ve got to stop working against each other and learn to work for each other. How can we be intentional about working together as the “body of Christ”?
Read Acts 2:1-4
Agreement takes time and intentionality. Learn to agree. Agreement has a process. They were in the upper room for fifty days. Did God make them wait fifty days for power? No, God releases power instantly. It took them fifty days to get to one accord.
Read 1 Corinthians 15
It says in Mark 2:23-24 that a house divided cannot stand because we can’t function with two visions. There has to be one vision in a house for it to function. You have to agree with someone (a husband, wife, friend, sibling, alter worker) for God to multiply your power and answer your prayer. You put aside your issues and agree on whatever it is so that God moves on your behalf.
Prayer Focus and Requests
Ask your members if they have any prayer requests or praise reports. Encourage one another to stir up your faith and pray BIG prayers this week and expect God to blow your mind with His answers!