The Gift of Agreement
AGREEMENTS
TO AGREE = go along with, support, comply with, conform to
HOW often do we agree to things without first thinking?
I DON’T mean things like, “Hey, give me your car.” “Okay.”
I MEAN on a deeper, psychological level.
CONSIDER why God came to earth in human form, born in a lowly manger . . .
1) Out of love and desire, God had set the perfect plan in motion. “It is very good!”
2) Man messed it up. What was intended to be a beautiful relationship, turned into a man-controlled religion
RELIGION at its worst:
You (shepherds) eat the fat,
you clothe yourselves with the wool,
you kill the fatlings,
but you do not feed the sheep.
The diseased and weak you have not strengthened,
the sick you have not healed,
the hurt and crippled you have not bandaged,
those gone astray you have not brought back,
the lost you have not sought to find,
but with force and hardhearted harshness
you have ruled them.
And they were scattered
because there was no shepherd,
and when they were scattered
they became food
for all the wild beasts of the field.
(Ezekiel 34:3-5)
READING that is like watching the evening news. My heart hurts.
-THE HEART of Abba cries out over the injustice in man’s heart. (vv-18-19)
The ‘strong’
deliberately eat the best pasture
The weak
eat of what was trampled.
The heartless
acquire the best of everything
The poor
get what’s left that’s ‘foul.’
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ELITISM!
The opposite of God’s intention for man
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A DIVINE BIRTH re-initiates the relationship:
God sent a Deliverer,
Humble, yet all powerful,
Poor, yet possessor of all gold
Fully human, yet with the power of God fully indwelling.
A Giver, not taker.
A Healer, not a wounder.
He is worthy of all honor and glory
and yet considers equality with God
NOT something to be grasped.
Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan
DESTROY? REALLY?
Jn 16:33 “…in Me, you may have perfect peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted! For I have overcome the world. I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.”
JESUS overcame disease, sickness, death, bondage, hunger, poverty…
CITIZENS of the Kingdom need not fear these things, for the Lord has provided – (not will or did. He HAS) The KINGDOM has come!
It’s here! 
Take it.
Walk in it.
Believe in the Kingdom,
Challenge the worldview.
“Conventional” does not equal “true and right”
As an embattled spirit, I have dual citizenship:
One Kingdom has precedence over my life;
To the other kingdom, I serve as an ambassador,
A link between a perfect heaven and a sick & hurting earth.
AWESOME!
“Peace I leave with you;
My peace I now give to you.
NOT as the world gives do I give to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid.”
DO NOT AGREE with the enemy of man and father of lies
“STOP allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed;
do not permit yourselves to be fearful and
intimidated
and cowardly
and unsettled.”
TO AGREE with (support, comply with, conform to) the woes and afflictions my world suffers is to give those things power to harm me. Chose to live differently, not conventionally.
(prayer) “Align my will with Yours”
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PEACE reigns in the heart of the believer
Walk in it
Live it
Peace on earth! Favor toward men!
The Way of the Embattled Spirit
MERRY CHRISTMAS
From J.A. MARX
