This is a rough draft of Chapter 8 from my latest book. I’m posting it here because I believe it has significant ability to impact readers… I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 8- The Power of Agreement

It is amazing the power of a human being who has determined that they will absolutely complete or accomplish a task. As we have addressed in previous chapters, nothing in life happens without first being a thought in our mind and the exponential power of that thought increases when we place our will, faith or belief system behind that thought by agreeing with it.

Most often the first indication of agreement is related to what you speak regarding the situation. I will, I will not, I promise, I’m determined to, I will never…

An interesting perspective on the power of our words coupled with our will, faith and agreement is found in the book of Proverbs where it states that the words that we speak carry the power to kill or give life.

Proverbs 18:21 (Amplified Bible)
21Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].

I’m particularly impressed with the Amplified version of this scripture because it ends with the words…For death or for life. In my experience, I have personally seen the power of agreement go both ways in the lives of people…

Having had years of experience, counseling people from all backgrounds and lifestyles I have found that a significant aspect of why people are who they are is directly related to whose words they have agreed with as it pertained to who they are and how they perceived themselves.

I have counseled men and women who were told by a parent or mentor as children that they were stupid, worthless, unlovable, ugly and would never amount to anything. And as they grew older, their lives reflected those spoken words as they came to accept them as truth, even adopting their accusers perspective as their own and placing their agreement in the words spoken by those in authority over them.

We have the power to overcome these curses that plague our past and influence our future but it will take an absolute determination to first change our agreement! Faith has the power to incapacitate us or move mountains in our lives depending on where it is directed or in what it is placed through our agreement.

Once we place our agreement in something we will inevitably live it out.  I’ve heard it said, You are who you think you are...

Proverbs 23:7 (New King James Version)
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

If you agree that you are worthless, you will act worthless. If you agree that you cannot do something, you will not be able to do it. If you agree that you will fail, you will fail…

In psychology and sociology, this is called a “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and ancient India, it is 20th-century sociologist Robert K. Merton who is credited with coining the expression “self-fulfilling prophecy” and formalizing its structure and consequences. In his book Social Theory and Social Structure, Merton gives as a feature of the self-fulfilling prophecy: e.g. when Roxanna falsely believes her marriage will fail, her fears of such failure actually cause the marriage to fail.
The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come ‘true’. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.
In other words, a prophecy declared as truth when it is actually false may sufficiently influence people, either through fear or logical confusion, so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy.
Taken from en.wikipedia.org

Several years ago, I was working in a court ordered transitional academy for teenagers coming out of juvenile detention but not yet ready to be integrated back into public schools (similar to a half way house for teenagers). There was a seventeen year old student there named Jonas who I developed a relationship with. Jonas was a very imposing young man at nearly 6’ 8” and easily 300 lbs. As many of the teenagers in this program were, Jonas was a member of a street gang and openly admitted to me that he sold drugs and was involved in violent activities.

In speaking with Jonas one day, I attempted to get him to look at the long term ramifications of the lifestyle choices that he was making and how it would influence his future, possibly even killing him. Jonas looked at me and said something that I had never heard from someone his age, Aaron, I’m ready to die…I won’t live to see 21, I’ve never really expected to live this long and I’ve done everything I ever really thought I would want to do…All I have left to do is to get my GED and I’ll be ready to die… 

I of course recognized the hopelessness in what he was saying and felt sincere pity and caution for him concerning what he had placed his agreement in. I attempted to offer him hope and an alternative to his choices, which could change what he perceived his destiny to be. But, sadly, he refused to hear it…Over the months that we spent together, I had several conversations with Jonas, I taught him to play chess and I helped him to get his GED… in agreement with what he spoke many times with me about over the course of those months on this subject of not living to see his 21st birthday, Jonas died in a gang shootout a few short years later…

As it pertained to Jonas, I am convinced that if he had placed his will and agreement in the hope that I was offering him, it could have absolutely altered his destination and extended his life well beyond 21 years old. But he had a pre-determined agreement that he was not going to live and as a result made repetitive decisions that ultimately landed him in the very place that he expected to land…The grave…and becoming another statistic of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy can go both ways!

Earlier in this chapter I stated, If you agree that you are worthless, you will act worthless. If you agree that you cannot do something, you will not be able to do it. If you agree that you will fail, you will fail… But I also firmly believe that the opposite is true and by changing your agreement you can literally change your life! If you change your agreement, refuse to buy into the lies of worthlessness spoken over you and embrace who God says you are as a son or daughter of the King, then you will act like you are! If you refuse to agree that you cannot do something and place your agreement in what God says about you, you will walk as someone who Can do ALL things through Christ! If you refuse to agree with feelings of failure and instead choose to place your agreement in Gods Word that states that you are MORE THAN a conqueror, then you will carry yourself in a direction that allows for decisions to be made that can alter the course of your destiny.

If you expect nothing, then you will NOT place yourself in situations where something can happen. Ultimately, what I am speaking about is literally placing your will and agreement in God’s Word which is a necessary aspect of faith in God… and this postures you to be able to receive the blessings that God has intended for you. I believe that your will, agreement and subsequent actions are exactly what the bible is talking about in James 2:17 when it says that faith without works is dead…

James 2:17 (Amplified Bible)
17So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).

It is our will, agreement and actions, lining up with Gods word that gives our faith legs to run on!

Why Faith?

The reason that placing our will, agreement and actions in line with Gods word is so important is because our faith in God and His Word is the catalyst for tapping into the power of our relationship with God and ultimately embracing our God ordained destiny. If Gods promises are a machine gun, faith is the trigger and your will and agreement are the necessary component that has to squeeze the trigger before the power can ever be unleashed!

Hebrews 11:6 (New International Version, ©2011)
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

James 1:4-7 (Amplified Bible)
4But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.
5If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.
6Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.
7For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord,

The way that we give action to our faith is by first hearing what God says about our circumstances. Secondly, placing our agreement, will and words behind what God says about us and our circumstances. Thirdly, refusing to place our agreement or to even allow for the voices that contradict what God is saying to have influence in our lives. And finally, living out actions like we agree with what Gods Word says.

So if God says, You can get through this even though every time in your past you were unable to, rather than place your agreement in your past failure, recognize that God is the difference maker in your life and choose to refuse to speak words of defeat, which ultimately set you up to be defeated (see self-fulfilling prophecy).

Instead, place your agreement in Gods word by lining up your self-fulfilling prophecies, words and agreements with what God says about your circumstances. If, the power of life and death are tied to the words we speak and the agreements we tie ourselves to with our words and faith like Proverbs 18:21 says, then choose to speak life-giving words and make life-giving agreements.

Proverbs 18:21 (Amplified Bible)
21Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].

Deuteronomy 30:19 (New International Version, ©2011)
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

NOW CHOOSE LIFE!

I believe that life is a choice!  You are not destined to fail regardless of your past and circumstances, as a matter of fact you have every power in the universe at your disposal to empower you to succeed if you will line your agreement up with God and His Word.  And in that place you can embrace truth, place your agreement in that truth and ultimately Choose Life in a way that you may have never experienced before…

Meditate upon this for a while until its truth begins to resonate in your spirit because implementing this understanding sets us up for success in the next chapter…Renouncing past agreements and breaking the curses that bring death.