Yesterday, during dinner with some awesome kingdom people, the lady of the house mentioned agreement. That truth stuck with me through the next 48 hours because it is a revelation Holy Spirit is investing in my spirit.
Agreement in Purpose
Agreeing with Jesus is seen first in His great discussion of the Authentic Vine:
“But if you remain in me–Father doesn’t cut you off, and you continue to produce mature fruit–and my words remain in you–my intention for you as someone who gets Father what He wants–you may ask for anything consistent with that intention, and Fater grants it” (John 15:7).
The conditional aspect of this request granting is prominent. You don’t ask for a new pair of roller skates because you are in the Authentic Vine. You remain in that relational condition because you are bearing the end product for which Father planted the Vine.
The conditional requirement is maintained because Father prunes you, and you produce ripe fruit for harvest. You finish the assignments given, appropriating the intentions of Jesus, who gets Father what He wants.
The revelation of the agreement is apparent. You remain in the Authentic Vine only when you agree with Father’s Father’s original intentions for the Vine and the branches.
Agreement in Processes
The term symphoneo can be translated differently depending upon its context and usage. It can be a legal term, business contract, or harmony of voices or instruments, or a simple “we are saying the same thing” conversational term.
Holy Spirit uses this term to record what Jesus says,
“If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you.
“If he listens, you’ve established your relationship. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses establish the words, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the entire ekklesia (establishing an agreement). If he won’t listen to the ekklesia, you’ll have to start over from scratch as if he’s a pagan.
“Take this most seriously: A yes on Earth is yes in Heaven; a no on Earth is no in Heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this.
“When two of you establish agreement on anything at all on Earth as representative of me, my Father in Heaven agrees with what you establish. And when two or three of you are together to establish this agreement representing me, you can be sure that I’ll be there” (Matthew 18:19).
The context is one of confronting a kingdom citizen in breach of kingdom covenant relationships. When someone refuses to come into agreement with you one on one, you must bring witnesses to the next confrontation.
I would suppose these witnesses to be kingdom leaders for two apparent reasons:
- They have the authority to bring the offender into a meeting;
- They have the authority to bring the matter to the entire ekklesia if the offender is unwilling to agree.
I cannot be adamant about that, but I can offer the expertise and experience of fifty years of ministry and a lifetime of ministry exposure.
In any case, the issue is one of agreement, and the authority of agreement establishes every word spoken. This issue is apparent in the process of dealing with offending believers and kingdom relationships.
The agreement establishes a matter by authorization, and the authorization goes all the way to Father’s Throne.
Agreement on Protocol
“As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. When the groom is gone, the fasting can begin. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!
No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that agree, and the patch will separate from the work clothes.
And you don’t put wine in old, weakened bottles; you get strong bottles for your fresh vintage wine. And no one who has ever tasted fine, aged wine prefers unaged wine” (Luke 5:36).
A protocol is an ancient concept from the times when an ambassador would read from a script sent by order of the King to announce what was appropriate in terms of diplomatic etiquette. It is a “here’s how you will treat my representatives away from court just as you would follow protocols when stepping into my royal courts.”
It developed into a way of expressing a sense of conventional with the meaning of normal,. appropriate behavior. A protocol measures honor. A protocol can be the cause of a war between nations.
The kingdom culture also has norms. The norms represent what is appropriate, conventional, or acceptable based upon a history of relationships, beliefs, and values.
Jesus illustrates why his behavior is appropriate when challenged by existing countercultural leaders of His kingdom. These leaders had developed their own culture with its own measures for appropriate behavior. They were in the habit of dishonoring Jesus.
Jesus used metaphoric language to answer them. He mentions the power of agreement in an illustration of how to mend a torn garment. If someone were to mend a work shirt with silk from a scarf, for example, the mend would not hold because it lacked agreement in terms of composition. He sues the word for agreement.
Fabric must have symphonic agreement to function. What I am doing is in complete agreement with the mission, assignment, and moment in history I was sent to. Without a revelation of these realities, no one can agree with Father. Only someone who knows the time, purpose, intentions and response of the Father can fulfill his mission assignment and get the Father what He wants.
He also illustrates this by reference to new and aged wine. Someone who tastes aged wine will never desire new wine because serving new wine is inappropriate when aged wine is available. In the same way, no one puts new wine into weakened skins. That is contrary to common practice.
So, if the current leaders had known who he is, what he comes to do, and what his ministry is, they would find his action as appropriate. They would agree with his protocols. What Jesus did and said left a bad taste in their mouths because they had the wrong protocols.
Protocols are important to an agreement between Jesus, His representatives, and those assigned to work together to produce what Father wants. When involved intercession runs contrary to these protocols, we can be certain we are not in agreement or establishing an agreement with God.
Not one apostle could act properly during the storms. They all acted inappropriately, and Jesus taught them appropriate behaviors.
Jesus spoke to all seven Ecclesiae in the Revelation about protocols they ignored. He then revealed proper protocols. We all remember his response to Jezebel. That clarified our involved intercession as representatives of Jesus.
Agreement in Prayer
By these kingdom culture principles, processes, and protocols, we see the power of agreement prayer.
But a man named Ananias—his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him—sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it.
“Peter said, ‘Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn’t lie to men but to God.’
Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead. That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it. The younger men went right to work and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.
“Not more than three hours later, his wife, knowing nothing of what had happened, came in.
“Peter said, ‘Tell me, were you given this price for your field?’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘that price.’
“Peter responded, ‘What’s going on here that you agreed together to test Holy Spirit? The men who buried your husband are at the door, and you’re next.’
“No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she also fell, dead. When the young men returned, they found her body. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
“By this time, the entire ekklesia, and everyone who heard of these things, had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with” (Acts 5:1-11).
The “how things really work in the spirit” presuppositions behind these events are often ignored. A more interesting discussion of whether or not Simon Peter should have killed somebody arises. But, did Simon Peter kill anybody, or merely agree with God?
The actual outcome seems to make this discussion a waste of time: no one feared Simon Peter for establishing an agreement with God about the matter.
The point of agreement between husband and wife, to establish the very opposite of agreement prayer, revealed an agreement between God and his authentic representative. Simon Peter agreed with God because God said this agreement to conspire against God was the opposite of agreement prayer.
The land was yours. The purchase price you received from its sale was yours. The decision to give anything at all was yours. So, you agreed to lie to Holy Spirit about the amount.
In other words, they were not only telling Simon Peter the wrong amount. They were lying to Holy Spirit, who told them God wanted them to give the apostles the entire amount.
Agreeing with God in obedience would have brought them life. Lying to God brought them death. The issue at hand was the answer to prayer about provision for the apostolic mandate. Ananias and Sapphira owned some property that God said was a kingdom asset.
Think about intercession in this way: Jesus represents the Father in involved intercession to get Father what He wants. He establishes what Father wants through His representatives who agree with Jesus about what Father wants.
Our representation of Jesus as an ekklesia is the reason we have seen so little of this response from God. We will see an increase of God establishing things with His people. We are going to see an increase in fear of the Lord as well. We will see that God is not to be trifled with now because we are entering a New Era Reformation to function as an authentic Ecclesia.
With the present level of disagreement with Jesus and one another, the disarray of the kingdom of God on Earth, Jesus is represented at a very weakened level of effectiveness. When He is represented at a much higher level, we see life-giving miracles, signs, and wonders. We see agreement in prayer that produces Father’s will at the mountain-moving level.
When we see that level of representation, we get more of Father in real-time, and we will see more of this imprecatory nature of Father as we see His eagerness to make investments in inheritors.
Let’s suppose that we are right now engaged in representing Jesus with tiddly-winks, and we are lazy in our accountability of tiddly-winks. The response of Father to the loss of tiddly-winks is pretty insignificant. An infant losing tiddly-winks is going to experience that level of correction.
Let’s suppose that we are suddenly dealing with the support and provision of an apostolic mandate for a nation of global significance. Let us consider that the people’s accountability toward that level of representation comes with Father’s response to adults.
Then, let us consider that the disobedience of representatives and people responding to representatives at that level becomes life and death.
We are coming into an understanding of where we have been with apostolic mandates. We have played with apostolic titles like infants with tiddly-winks. We have toyed with apostolic orders as if they were Amway downlines to support apostles when they retire.
Where are we now in the New Era Reformation when nations are at stake! Father deals with his representatives and those that deal with them at another level of accountability.
If we are dealing with mere men, we have petty responses to our dishonor and flippant disobedience. When dealing with the immediacy of God involved intercession, we experience the weighty justice of immediacy in our involved intercession.
We must examine the fateful words of Simon Peter carefully to ascertain the power of agreement in involved intercession.
“It is because of why satan filled your heart to lie to Holy Spirit, Ananias…”
Wait! Ananias and Saphira agreed with satan in involved intercession to establish a satanic outcome instead of establishing the agreement between Father and the representatives of Jesus.
Not long ago, God said to me, “You have a couple in this ministry who are agreeing with satan about the finances of this ministry. She is dancing up front, and he is helping receive the offering from My people. They are both lying to Holy Spirit before the Ecclesia, and you are not acting as if you agree with my heart about this behavior.”
He told me what to say to them. I did. The response I received verifies that God was right, of course, or that I heard God right about their deceit.
They provided written proof that they sought to diminish the provision supplied to this ministry because they disagreed with my choices of leaders. They sought to withhold monies God has designed and defined through a relationship with the representatives of Jesus. They cursed me and this ministry with limitations in financial supply.
At one point, I knew how fatal this activity is. I asked God to show them mercy even though I knew God would not bless them with prosperity or the desires of their hearts. I asked God to spare their lives in mercy.
I would tremble to live with such a Heavenly terror hanging over my head!
With such agreement in prayer for nations comes the higher-level representation of the involved intercession of Jesus. To agree with satan in this role and calling, when kingdoms clash and nations hang in the balance is to trifle with death.
Touching God’s anointed, we trifle with God, who made them His representatives.
Yet, to agree with Jesus, we must come into agreement with His representatives. When the revelation comes, and our battlefield orders arrive, we must come into agreement with unusual demands upon our personal lives. We must be all in when the season shifts and urgent, sacrificial measures are appropriate.
