Agreeing with Heaven

When heaven and earth agree is a great teaching by Dr. Jim Richards http://vimeo.com/69625628

It is interesting that when the scripture talks about two agreeing on anything, it does not necessarily mean two people, but when we agree with heaven/God about a situation, that is when things change. This is why we are commanded to pray that "God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

The other interesting point is that "binding a loosing" does not necessarily apply to spiritual warfare and binding the devil. It actually was an idiom used in those days and means "to declare something forbidden/unlawful or declare something allowed/lawful". 

Binding and loosing therefore means that when we pray, we should be declaring what is forbidden and declaring what is allowed.

How do we know what is forbidden and what is allowed?

Understanding what Jesus accomplished on the cross makes it clear.

If Jesus took our infirmities and carried our diseases (Isaiah 53, Matt 8:17), then it means that when sickness attacks our bodies, it is forbidden or unlawful. The bible says that by His stripes we were healed. Therefore this is what is lawful or allowed. So we must declare "By His stripes we are healed". We must declare this, even if our bodies are sick and hurting because the Kingdom of God operates by faith. 

We see this principle in Abraham's life when God said to him that Sarah was going to have a child. The Bible says he did not consider the deadness of Sarah's womb, Abraham believed that what God said would come to pass. In other words Abraham simply agreed with God and not Sarah's situation at that time. Sarah, however did falter on this aspect of believing God's Word, she laughed out loud when she what God said. (most of us would probably have responded like Sarah did because our world view is usually an earthly or natural perspective of what is possible. When God or someone gives us a perspective of what is possible from a spiritual or supernatural perspective, we might laugh or say it is not possible, but this perspective is not governed by natural laws. The spiritual dimension is a higher dimension. A word spoken in faith is how we operate in the spiritual dimension and can bring about a change in this lower or natural dimension). After several years of Sarah still not conceiving, Sarah decided that God needed some help, so she handed Hagar, her maid to Abraham and said he must sleep with her. This act of unbelief resulted in a lot of problems. 

The bible says that Abraham did not waver in unbelief, he agreed with God and called things that be not (Sarah's ability to conceive), to be as God had said they will be. Abraham is thus called the father of all who believe (Romans 4:11). 

God told Abraham that Sarah would conceive a child and he would become the father of many nations. There was however a period of several years that went by before Sarah eventually conceived. This obviously was difficult for both of Abraham and Sarah and they had lots of opportunity to question God's word to them. The Bible says that Abraham did not waver in unbelief Romans 4:20 "Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. also faltered since he went along with Sarah's plan, just like Adam did with Eve's. But the bible does not record him as wavering in his faith. We can be encouraged by this because though at times we may falter, we simply need to get ourselves back on track and start believing again and then we will be considered as righteous and our sin of unbelief will be forgotten by God. (Unfortunately, we often still have to deal with the consequences of our unbelief as Abraham and Sarah had to deal with Hagar and Ishmael)

The principle of speaking out the result before it is visible can be seen right at the beginning of Genesis when God spoke and the world came into being. This is confirmed by Paul in several places in the New Testament such as 2 Corinthians 4:13 "It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak,"

2 Corinthians 5:7 affirms the principle that faith is not dependant on seeing something first "for we walk by faith, not by sight".   

We are commanded to live by faith: Romans 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

And Hebrew 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

And then the bible definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

So to be able to come into agreement with God we have to walk by faith and we also need to know what the bible says we are allowed to believe for. Our faith can only be established on God's Word to us.

If the gospel is the good news to the poor, what does this mean? If the bible declares that poverty is a curse and we have been redeemed from the curse we should not be permitting the curse of poverty.

If the bible declares that a man can be saved by believing in his heart and confessing with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, then this is what we must declare.

What the bible declares is what heaven declares or what God declares. We simply need to come into agreement with what the bible says and then it will be done for us in our own lives.

We dont need to beg God to do what He has already done. Jesus said "It is finished". He has done all He needs to do in order to accomplish our salvation, healing, redemption from poverty. 

Agreeing with the bible when we pray is very different to begging God to do something. We must see ourselves raised up and seated in heavenly places with Christ. We declare the word of God with authority. What we declare will come to pass. Life and death are in the power of our tongue. Our tongue will declare our thoughts. We need to guard what is in our heart for out of it (our words) flow the issues of life. Our tongue is the rudder that steers our life. Our conversation needs to always be aligned with what we declare in our prayers. If our conversation contradicts our prayers then our prayers are meaningless.