My first memory verses of the year were from Job: "Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart". And I mused on here some about what it means to "agree with God". I wasn't sure what it meant completely, but I knew that I wanted to know. What I have learned is that all I needed to know is contained right there in those two verses.
A couple weeks ago, a friend unexpectedly gave us a copy of the book "The Power of Spoken Faith" by Don Gossett, saying that God had lead him to share it. Truly God wanted him to share it because it has spoken directly to my question of how to agree with Him.
The author of the book was going through a hard time in his life financially and in the first chapter writes, "During that time, I read a wonderful book called Word Power, by Vernon Hower. God used the message of that book to help me freshly understand the power of my words, and He gave me this Scripture: 'Can two walk together, except they be agreed?' (Amos 3:3)' God was asking me, 'Do you want to walk with Me? Then you must agree with Me. You agree with Me by saying what My Word says. You have disagreed with Me by speaking lack, sickness, fear, defeat and inability. If you want to walk with Me, you must agree with Me'.... How do we agree with God? We agree by saying what God says while disagreeing with the wicked, lying Devil. (Hallelujah for such a dynamic truth!)"
Agreeing with God means that I will say (and believe) what God says and nothing contrary to it.
This is easy to practice on some levels. For example, when it comes to saying what God says ABOUT HIMSELF, it is easy to agree. God is good, compassionate, loving, full of mercy, slow to anger, abounding in love, holy, just, King of kings, Lord of lords, everlasting.... God is all of those things and more and when he says those things, I agree with him.
It is also fairly easy to agree with the things God says about sin and its harmful affects on us and others. I agree with God when he says we shouldn't lie, steal, worship other gods, be sexually immoral, gossip, etc. I have seen the devastating affects of all those things on myself and others.
But doesn't it become much harder to agree when it comes to what God says ABOUT ME. For example, as soon as I say, "I can't....." then I am not agreeing with God, because God says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". If I say I am afraid, I am not agreeing with God because God says he "has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-discipline".
So this is why I say the "secret" is self-contained in those verses in Job... he says "receive instruction from his mouth and lay up his word in your heart". The way to agree with God about ME is to take every negative thought that I have about myself captive and make it obedient by confronting it with truth from God's word. And doing this over and over and over again until I believe it and agree.
Oh, I believe so many lies about myself and my life. Can I ever change? "With God, all things are possible" and " And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit". 2 Corinthians 3:18.
3 comments:
This is really good. You should look into having it published in THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN magazine or some other journal/magazine. I have two friends who have each had a couple of pieces published in the magazine, and this piece is worthy of publication. Seriously. You CAN do that.
Thank you for the vote of confidence Grancy. :-)
The things you wrote about remind me of the Beth Moore book - Get out of that Pit - it didn't sound like something I really wanted to read, at first. I didn't think I was in a pit, and wasn't exactly, but there are many examples of pits. It was one of the most helpful books in my day to day walk - if you haven't read it, you should get it!
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