There is an axiom in spiritual warfare circles that says, “Whatever or whomever you agree with,  you empower.”  When Adam and Eve aligned their thinking with the serpent’s suggestions about the character of God and eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, in some way they submitted to his authority.  By agreeing with Satan, they joined the ranks of the cursed.

One of the rules of debate is that you never allow your opponent to establish the premise upon which the debate will be argued. If the premise is faulty, there is no way to arrive at the truth. When we agree with Satan, we have inevitably accepted one of his premises that God is not good, that God does not have our best interest in mind, that God is not true to his word, or that God does not have the power to protect us from the enemy. Think about the people you know who have abandoned the faith, and you will recognize that they came into agreement with one of those premises. When Adam aligned his thinking with the serpent’s, he gave up his position as God’s representative ruler over the earth and Satan became the prince of this world.  Agreement matters.

Have you ever seen a child who got a cut or scrape on his hand while playing?  He cries and screams as if he is dying until Mom comforts him and puts a band-aid on the cut.  It’s not long until he is absorbed with other things and forgets all abound his terrible wound…until he notices the bandage again and then, suddenly, he is once again in terrible pain and needs emergency care from his mother.  When he noticed the bandage again, he came into agreement with the idea that his life was in mortal danger from the “terrible wound” he had suffered. The pain that was unnoticeable for a while, suddenly was empowered and became unbearable when he came into agreement with the idea that he was injured.  

It’s not that the child did not have a legitimate wound or did not feel some pain. Agreement simply gave the scratch more power over the child than was warranted. If he had not focused on the band-aisd, he could have conti ned to play and enjoy his day. His focus and his belief about what the band-aid represented side tracked his play time and took him back to a place of fear and pain.

The principle of agreement is found in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Paul reminds us that there are many things the enemy will throw at us that argue against the truths that God has revealed in his word.   But we are told to take hold of our thoughts and make them obedient to Christ.  That is another way of saying that we must make sure we align our thoughts and words with the truths and promises of God and not with the lies and inuendoes of the enemy.  Like the boy with the band-aid, we must keep our eyes on the promises of God rather than the problems we encounter.  If we focus more on the problem than the promises, we give the problem power in our lives.  If we focus enough, it will begin to have absolute power over our lives. For every problem and every challenge, Jesus and the promises he has purchased for us with his blood are the answer.

Remember when Moses sent the twelve spies into Canaan to check out the land they had been promised by God and were preparing to invade.  Ten came back overwhelmed by the size of the inhabitants and the walled cities in Canaan.  They came into agreement with fear and I’m sure the doubt that Satan had been whispering in their ears.  There words reflect their agreement with the problem and the whispers of the enemy. “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them” (Num.13:33).     Joshua and Caleb declared that with God’s help they could surely take the land.  The ten never entered the promise-land while Joshua and Caleb were honored by God for their agreement with him. They entered the land and took possession of it.  

We are certainly facing challenges right now – Covid19, divisive politics, racism, a nuclear Iran, and a controversial election that threatens to splinter America even more than it already is.  Every headline and every news report is leavened with fear and hate.  Too many believers are believing the headlines rather than the promises of God.  

If we spend more time watching CNN or browsing social media than we do meditating on the promises of God, we will find ourselves in agreement with the world and the prince of this world rather than being in agreement with God. Our lives will be infected with fear and hopelessness rather than faith and courage.  If there ever was a time that we need to make every thought obedient to Christ, this is that time. I see believers shrinking back in fear, seeing themselves as grasshoppers when the word of God promises us his presence, his protection, and his provision.  Mediate on his promises and thank him for who he is for us.  If you have come into agreement with fear and anger, repent.  Change that today.  Psalm 91 and Romans 8 are two great places to live right now.  You might begin and end every day by spending time in those passages.

As the writer of Hebrews declares: So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. Heb. 10:35-11:1