The Thumbs Up of God

The New Normal must rely upon a thumbs up from God. Everything we say and do needs to be in alignment with what He is saying and doing. It is so exciting to break new ground and be pioneers in these times but each new direction always needs a warrant from the King. An Apostle is someone sent on a special mission for the King. Our missions, small or great must originate from His desk. We must be in agreement with Him. It is His desire to be in agreement with us. I figure the universe itself is somewhat like a paper weight on the desk of our Heavenly Father. This makes us smaller than a piece of sand, and then to think that He thinks this much of us. I am overwhelmed. He wants me…. Smaller than a piece of sand… to agree with Him. It is important to Him.
　
We need to agree with what God says about us, our future and our relationship with Him. We hear Him speak through His written word and other various ways. The word must be read under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The other various ways must be carefully discerned. God’s still small voice must be heard over our own soulish desires crying out to be heard. Dreams and visions need the Holy Spirit’s interpretation. Words through others have to be tried and tested. Maturity in our conversations with God will make all of these much easier. As we tune our hearts to hear Him, His voice becomes louder and more sure to us. To sense His agreement with us is what I refer to as a “thumbs up from God”. However, on the flip side of the coin, we need to be in agreement with God also.

To be in agreement with God means that we have the same mind as He does. In other words, we need to be developing the mind of Christ within us like never before! We can meditate on the words and actions of Christ in the gospels. Let Him mold us instead of the uncertain doctrines of men. Jesus was really more different than a lot of religious leaders portray Him. Some have done no more than box Him into a personality, not much different than the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day. This is so unfair, since Jesus came to break that mold. Jesus’ mind and passion was full of forgiveness, justice, and love. He was a man of joy. He persevered in the worst of storms. He was sacrificial to the point of giving His life. There was no arrogance, pride or jealousy in His heart. His motives were pure. These are only a few examples of so many of the attributes of the mind and passions of Christ.

To understand agreement with our Father, we may need some understanding of the word “agree” itself. Some of the definitions of the word "agree" are: "To be of one mind; to harmonize in opinion, to live in concord, or without contention, to yield assent." I especially like the last one when it comes to being in agreement with my Father. I want to yield my assent to Him. Even the word assent holds depth, when it comes to our relationship with God. Assent means to agree to something especially after thoughtful consideration. I love to think upon what the Father speaks to my spirit. There are three words that Webster uses to define the word "agreement". These three words are concord, harmony, and conformity. It is so good to be in concord and harmony with someone….. especially God. Then, when I am out of alignment I need to come into conformity.

To come into conformity may require us to change some wine-skins. Jesus told a parable about the danger of putting new wine into old wine-skins. He said the new wine will burst the skins and the wine will be wasted. (see Luke 5:36-39) Our wine-skin needs to agree with God’s plans. Unless we are able to embrace the new living word of God for our lives and times we cannot have fullness of life. If we choose to hang onto old habits and wrong beliefs that are useless to the kingdom of God, we will fail to walk in unity with God. Even new ideas that fail to get His stamp of approval are useless. We definitely need the “thumbs up” of our Father.

Sometimes our wine-skins are soaked in disappointment and bitterness. If this is true, we will need to allow ourselves to receive healing so that we can come into agreement with God's divine will for our lives. We cannot allow the discouragement of past challenges to dictate our future. God wants us to walk in victory. We must allow the disappointments of the past to die. We need to confess them to our Father and receive healing and receive from Him the power to go forward.

Psalm 133 speaks of unity and agreement and it’s power in our lives. It is a perfect example of how unity releases life to God's people. He actually breathes life into us, as well as our situations as we come into unity. Jesus also explained the principle of the power of agreement in regards to spiritual warfare. He said that whatever we bind on earth is bound in Heaven. He said that whatever we loose on earth is loosed in Heaven. This is powerful stuff. (see Matthew 18:18,19) Jesus is saying that we have the power to bind the enemy if we will come into agreement with Heaven. The word "agree" in this passage is the Hebrew word sumphoneo, which again implies being in unity or being harmonious. However, it is connected to another word, phone, which is described as "noise, sound, (and) voice." I think we can be safe to say that Jesus was inviting us to come into unity with the sound of Heaven and the voice of Heaven…. which is God's voice!

In Matthew 16:19 Jesus continued His discourse on agreement by saying that if a couple of us agree on earth, the Father recognizes it in Heaven. Paul tells us that we need to agree with each other, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with us. This brings to us the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. (see II Corinthians 13:11;14) Wow… what great power…. agreement brings to us. It invokes the presence of the Triune God. I believe this passage is referring to the bringing together of one sound. Our agreement with God and our harmony with one another brings it together. This one sound should fully reflect the sound from Heaven. When we are in agreement with God there is surely life and when we are in harmony with one another, there is a release of even more life!

I recently attended the funeral of my brother who died after a four wheeler accident. He lived in another state, so I asked some of those who were with him in his last hours about his response to it all. My brother never spoke much of spiritual things and I wasn’t sure about his faith. I talked with his friend who was with him at the scene of the accident and asked him some questions. He said when my brother was going into emergency surgery he asked him about his relationship with God and he gave him a gesture. My brother gave his friend a thumbs up.