An agreement is a negotiated and typically legally binding arrangement between parties as to a course of action. Our life and living is filled with several agreements. In life, we all are products of agreements: those we made and those that were made on our behalf.
Whoever and whatever you are now is a product of agreements that you have made before now. In essence, agreements we make in life can make us or mar us. We therefore need to be careful regarding agreements we make.
Generally there are three levels of agreement we can enter:
Man to man
This could be business, marriage, security, friendship. Man may try to keep his words, but for many reasons, he can still disappoint. The arm of flesh does fail.
Man to Devil
This could be business, friendship, security, material, popularity, riches. The problem with Satan is that he cuts the life of his partners when they most need it.
Luke 22:3: Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
Man to God
This is the only agreement that can never fail. God is not debtor. He owes no one.
Mark 10:29-30 – And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Deuteronomy 20:4 – For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
From creation, God has always seeks to be in agreement with man. After He made Adam and Eve, God told them that as long as they keep His instruction of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will be blessed. Unfortunately, man broke the agreement and curse was placed upon mankind.
Since then, God seeks after individuals and groups that will enter into agreement with Him, so He can pronounce His blessings upon them.
In Luke 5: 1-11, Jesus was intending to teach the people about the kingdom. The crowd were however pressing hard on Him. He was by the sea, which poses health risk, as everyone wanted to be close to Him. He wisely thought of entering a boat, move a bit away from the shore and to teach from there, which will be safer. The challenge was that Jesus had no boat and therefore sought for partnership with someone that had. Peter offered to partner with Christ, and the result was an overwhelming harvest. From disappointment, misery, despair and failure, Peter enjoyed abundant catch of fishes. Peter was a mastered fisherman, yet a failure on the day.
Are you facing disappointment in what you know well enough? Something you already mastered is posing a challenge to you. Why not find a way of entering an agreement with God. Make an offer to God that He cannot resist.
In I Sam. 1: 1-11, Hannah for several years was hoping she would have a child for her husband. The matter became worse as her co-wife was always mocking and intimidate her. One day as they went to Shiloh on their yearly prayer visit, Hannah did something she had not done before, she made a vow. She entered into an agreement with God, that if she is blessed by God with a child, she will in turn give the child back to God all the days of his life. Only for people to just know that Hannah bore a child.
Unknown to Hannah, God was already looking for a replacement for Prophet Eli, as his two sons had tarnished the honour of the priest of the Almighty. God immediately gave Hannah the boy named Samuel who soon became the High Priest. Following that, Hannah was blessed with five other children (1 Sam. 2:21).
Are you in lack of something you ought to have? Are you been mocked because of a particular issue or deficiency? May be you have prayed and prayed and nothing has happened? It could be that God is expecting you to make a vow you will pay unto Him. Genuine vow can move the hands of God. God signed the agreement with Hannah.
May He endorse your own in Jesus name.
In Judges 11:1-40, the bible talks about Jephtar. He was to be an honourable man, having been born into an influential family and also a valiant warrior, but because his mother was a harlot, his destiny became thwarted. He was chased away from home by his step brothers and he had to be living as a vagabond, raiding travellers to eat.
Somehow, the people of Ammon entered into a war with Israel. The elders of Israel then went to Jephtar to lead them to war; he however gave them the condition of becoming their leader if he wins the war, which they agreed.
After that agreement, Jephtar knew he needed another agreement which will be superior. It was to be with the Almighty. He vowed that if God will make him win, and then whatever that greeted him first as he returns home, shall be a burnt offering to God.
The agreement was welcome by God, as Jephtar won even though he was not supposed to militarily.
Are you supposed to be honourable in life, but something seemed to have thwarted that move? God is able to bring your honour back and even greater. Jephtar was possibly the first son; he could have been the leader of his siblings. God however made him to become the leader of the nation. What you need to do is enact an agreement with God that you will not take the honour He has bestowed on you, but that you will use that honour for His own glory.
Levi was the third son of Jacob. When Jacob was about to die, he called his sons to bless them. Unfortunately for Levi, he got a curse instead for the indiscriminate killings he did with Simeon. Jacob said both of them will be scattered in Jacob and dispersed in Israel. The curse they carried for about 500 years (Gen. 49:5-7)
However, as the Israelites journeyed to the Promised Land, they got to Mount Sinai where the Ten Commandment was given. While Moses was communing with God for forty days and nights, the Israelites thought he was dead. So they began to worship idol.
When Moses returned to the camp, he demanded those that were still on The Lord’s side to come to him. It was only the tribe of Levi that did out of twelve tribes! It was an agreement that changed their destiny (Ex. 32:26).
From being a scattered tribe, they became priest of God. The eleven tribes were to work and sustain the Levite. God said, He will be the Levite’s inheritance.
May be you had made a mistake before which is affecting your destiny, making an agreement with God today that you are still on His side will transform your destiny greatly.
How can you demonstrate that you are on The Lord’s side?
1. Give God your treasure. Some of us are stingy with God. Some treat Him as the unfaithful servant that says his master was a hard man that reaps where he has not sown. Many still think that God is asking them for what He has not given.
Meanwhile the Bible tells us:
John 3:27 – John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
Deuteronomy 8:18 – But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Do you pay your tithe? It is an agreement with God. It’s about the only place in the bible where God said you can test Him. Some do considers the 10% of their income too big to give to God, but they want more of His blessing. Tithing is a covenant. If you can’t give God £200 out of £2000, why will He raise you to £4000? If you were God, will you raise the fellow? It is easier to give £200 from £2000, than to give £400 from £4000. It’s just simply like that.
For example, in this church if everyone that is paying his/her tithe were equally unfaithful, how would we be able to run this ministry as we do? We wouldn’t have been able to be buying this place or the bank would have collected it back. Would that have brought glory to God? Never!
You can even challenge God more with your treasures by making vows, paying pledges and honouring Him with your first fruit. Give Him your best as Abel.
Malachi 1:6-9 – A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts.
And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts.
Psalms 50:14-15 – Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
2. Use your gift for Him. God created all of us. He made us differently. What is devoid in one is found in another. He wants all of us to use our gifts for Him. Unfortunately, some still would not consider using their endowment for God.
When we were coming to earth, unknowingly to many, the agreement we sign with our Creator is that if we use what we have, He will bless us more, but if we don’t, He will collect what we have from us (Mt. 25:25-28).
What is your gift? Are you sitting on it? Will God ever call you a good and faithful servant? In what way have you serve Him?
3. Spend your time for God. Time they say is money. Time is one of the most precious things on earth. When it’s gone, it’s gone. The only way to redeem time is to spend it wisely. There is this analogy of someone who receives 86,000 pence per day, every day. But he has to spend it all per day, without a carryover. 86,000 seconds is within a day or 1,433 minutes. What percentage do you use to fellowship with God and or serve Him daily? This adds up to 516,000 minutes annually. How many do you waste daily and then annually?
Note that it’s only now that time is precious. It will be useless in eternity. So, use it well.
Why are you not in House Fellowship, just 60 minutes out of 10,080 a week?
Why are you not in evangelism, 90 minutes out of 43,200 a month?
Why are you not in prayer night, 180 minutes out of 43,200 a month?
What sort of agreement are you keeping with God? Check yourself.
Prayers
Almighty Father, help me not to withhold my treasures from you.
Almighty Father, propel me to use my gift for you.
Almighty Father, teach me how to spend my time for you.
Delivered on May 11th 2014