2011 - THE YEAR TO AGREE WITH GOD

Can two people walk together
      without agreeing on the direction?

Amos 3:3 NLT

It is a brand new year and I always spend time asking the Lord for His word about the 12 months ahead. This year the word that came was so simple - THIS IS THE YEAR TO AGREE WITH GOD.

The Lord took me back to the incidents where I have argued with God, resisted His direction, given excuses why I could not do what He was asking, or when I simply have not made His priorities - my priorities. All of those places were places where I had not AGREED with God. The Lord made it so clear...when I am not in agreement with Him - I am not walking with Him. It is like standing at a fork in the road and God wants to go in one direction and I have a hundred excuses as to why I can't go down that road right now. Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? Of course the answer to the prophet's rhetorical question is "NO!"

I believe that the Lord is saying that for the body of Christ - it is time to put aside every excuse - and come into agreement with God on EVERY issue.

It occurred to me that every time God wanted to do something AMAZING in the earth - He had to find someone who was willing to come into agreement with His plan. Consider Noah - Genesis 6:9 says,  "Noah walked with God." From Amos 3:3, we can understand that Noah must have been in agreement with God if he was able to walk with God.

And we know from Noah's story in Genesis that he agreed to God's crazy sounding plan about building the biggest boat the world had ever seen at that point in history, and in a day when no one had ever heard of rain or a flood. He had to face ridicule from a godless society which had no respect for God and yet he continued to agree to God's plan and just kept building. And we know that God blessed and helped Noah and God's plan worked flawlessly. Because Noah chose to agree with God, God was able to do a wonder in the earth through that one man's obedience.

Though we have no record of Noah arguing with God, Moses was quite a different story. God wanted to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and He wanted Moses to be the one to do the job. But Moses didn't feel qualified for the assignment so he posed many objections to God about the whole idea. He did not want to agree with God's plan and he pushed God to the point of anger by asking God to send someone else! (Exodus 4:13-14)

I think that this same scenario is played out all over the world with so many of God's people. We have so many logical sounding reasons (just like Moses) for why we cannot agree with God's direction. And most of them have to do with SELF. "I am unqualified", "I am too old", "I am too afraid", "I will be embarrassed",  "I can't do it", "I am not good at that"....it is all about "I"...and yet God NEVER asks us to do anything in our own strength. In fact He forbids it!  ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty. (Zech. 4:6) The Lord wants us to do EVERYTHING by the power of His Spirit...not the power of our flesh.

It seems that many Christians hear God give them direction and immediately look at their own abilities and say, "Lord, I can't!" So they won't agree with God. Yet all God is looking for is a willing heart and a yielded spirit so that He can empower the person who is willing to come into agreement with Him. Neither Noah nor Moses could "make it happen" with regard to God's huge plan...but both of them became WILLING TO AGREE to God's plan...and then God was able to work in and through them to bring it to pass.

One of the most profound examples of someone putting aside their own fears and objections and coming into agreement with God is in the story of Mary, recorded in the first chapter of Luke's Gospel. When the angel Gabriel appeared and told her that God wanted her to bear His Son, her agreement was wholehearted:
“I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” Luke 1:38 NLT

Mary knew she would face being publicly shamed in her community by suddenly showing up pregnant out of wedlock. Yet she was willing to come into agreement with God regardless of the potential cost to her own reputation. God's plans are always to bless many people through one person's obedience. Yet so often in our human self-centeredness, we focus only on what it is going to cost us.

You have no idea the number of people God wants to impact by your simple obedience of coming into agreement with God. Moses' agreement with God delivered an entire nation. Mary's agreement with God resulted in the salvation of the whole world.

Start by coming into agreement with God in the smallest areas of your life...what to do with your time, your money, your relationships. Then allow God to speak to you about the bigger picture...your destiny. You will never be given the opportunity to agree with God in the bigger things, if you are not willing to agree and obey in the smaller things. God waits to see if you are faithful in little, before giving you much. (Luke 16:10; Luke 19:17)

One key to remember is that God is not asking you to do anything in your own strength - but instead He is looking for a willing heart to agree with His will.  Then simply ask God to give you the GRACE to obey Him.  Once you have yielded your will to His and have come into agreement - you will find GREAT GRACE available to you.

Make a decision to consecrate 2011 to the Lord by being WILLING to AGREE with God. Then pray like Mary prayed, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”  You will be astounded at what the Lord will do through you to bless multitudes in 2011 by that simple obedience!