“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 18:19, NASB)

The foundation stone of our salvation is agreement. We say yes to Yeshua and His free offer of salvation and in that Yes w are transformed from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light.

“I have come as Light into the world, so that no one who believes in Me will remain in darkness.” (John 12:46, NASB)

The heart of believing is agreement, saying “yes” with our heart to the reality we want to live in. Let’s look a little deeper into this power of agreement:

Paul in speaking to the Corinthians:

“In this confidence I intended at first to come to you, so that you might twice receive a blessing; that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea. Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I decide, do I decide according to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but has been yes in Him. For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” (2Co 1:15-20, NASB)

First and foremost, Paul wants to communicate his confidence in what he is saying. We might call this “conviction” or the sincerity of His beliefs. This is important because insincerity is a hindrance to the truth. Paul contrasts two very different kinds of speaking. The first is speaking according to the flesh which he describes as speaking “yes” and “no” at the same time. What does he mean by that?

The speaking of the flesh relies on the power of the flesh to validate it. This is why it is yes and no. Simply, it implies uncertainty. James describes it this way:

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (Jas 1:5-8, NASB)

Doubt is the native condition of the speaking of the flesh. There can be no true confidence when we are relying on an unreliable power source. The primary reason for this doubt is the inconsistency of the confidence from the flesh. Why is that? Because the flesh relies on history. At best in the flesh, we can only draw upon the success of the past and hope that we can duplicate that this time.

We, in the flesh, have a life built on lies, the lies we believed to try to control the pain or produce the pleasure in our lives. Romans 7 describes the conflict this causes for us: 

“For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Rom 7:15, NASB)

Paul is describing the life of yes and no. We want to do the right thing, what we believe will work, but we don’t have the full assurance because it is not of faith, but of the flesh, and so it is a house built on sand. The sand shifts, and we lose our footing and cannot do what needs to be done. The more lies in the story, the more we lose power.

Yeshua called this a sand foundation related to our lack of faith:

““And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and its collapse was great.”” (Mat 7:26-27, NASB)

So to have a power life, we have to have a power conversation built not on yes and no but only on yes. This is the power of agreement.

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 18:19, NASB)

This is the core of the conversation of faith, acting on the yes.

In Hebrew, the word “yes” is the word “ken”. It is the root word that gives us the word for priest, which is the Cohen. The priest is the agent of agreement, the restorer of the yes. What defeats the power of the yes? The power of sin and death.

What is the role of “Cohen”? To restore the power of the yes. How?  Through the sacrifice? When we admit our sin and present a sacrifice, the cost for the restoration we restore our yes. Another way of saying this is that when we sin, we leave the realm of the yes, the realm of unity, of agreement, and we separate ourselves into isolation. Isolation is the process of death.

“One who separates himself seeks his own desire; He quarrels against all sound wisdom.” (Pro 18:1, NASB)

When we isolate, we are planning a deception. We move from the power of the yes into the murky realm of yes and no. To reconnect with the yes, we need to bring a sacrifice, a substitution for the death that our deception has wrought. If we don’t bring a sacrifice, then we are given over to our isolation, and we lose the confidence of the yes.

This is the importance of witness. Community establishes truth through agreement. First agreement with God and then agreement with the truth that is being witnessed. Even Yeshua couldn’t operate without this agreement. We see this most glaringly in His return to His hometown where He was a prophet without honor.

“And He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, with the result that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man acquire this wisdom and these miraculous powers? “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is His mother not called Mary, and His brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? “And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man acquire all these things?” And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not dishonored except in his hometown and in his own household.” And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.” (Mat 13:54-58, NASB)

Without the “yes”, the agreement, even Yeshua could not operate fully.

We see this again when He speaks of the critical nature of the witness of John the Immerser.

““I can do nothing on My own. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. “There is another who testifies about Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. “You have sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth.” (Jhn 5:30-33, NASB)

This is how important the yes is. Yeshua is the great High Priest according to the writer of Hebrews.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.” (Heb 4:14, NASB)

We can hold firmly to our confession because He has restored the yes to our speech, to the conversation of the heart. Let’s read on:

 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.” (Heb 4:15-16, NASB)

Mercy and grace are the pillars that hold up the yes in our lives. We receive grace when we bring our sacrifice to god who is Yeshua. We accept the death of Yeshua as our death sacrifice. This is by grace, not by our own works.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;” (Eph 2:8, NASB)

His sacrifice is our sacrifice by grace and through faith, which is our agreement, our yes. When we say yes to Him, not only are we saved, but we are restored to the power of yes! All of nature is keyed to that reality, called the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.

“For the eagerly awaiting creation waits for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.” (Rom 8:19, NASB)

Finally, I want to look at one key area that can rob us of the power of yes, even after we receive the freedom of the sacrifice, and that is how we handle our money.

The priests were given the responsibility of protecting the yes. In Leviticus 27:14, we read:

“‘Now if someone consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, then the priest shall assess it as either good or bad; as the priest assesses it, so shall it stand.” (Lev 27:14, NASB)

In this example, a person has decided to give a house to the Lord. The priest, the bringer of the yes, determines if it is good or bad. This is called an assessment, a determination of value. The priest has the job of assessing value. This means the priest is making a way or not for the house to be holy as an offering to the Lord. Now let’s take this reality and look at the actions of a couple known as Ananias and Sapphira.

“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the proceeds for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the land? “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.” And as he heard these words, Ananias collapsed and died; and great fear came over all who heard about it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now an interval of about three hours elapsed, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for this price?” And she said, “Yes, for that price.” Then Peter said to her, “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.” And immediately she collapsed at his feet and died; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard about these things.” (Act 5:1-11, NASB)

What was at stake here? The stakes was the yes of God. In the flesh our strategy is yes and no. But once we trust the Lord then our strategy has to become one of agreement with Him which is the power of the yes!

Activation: Pray and ask the Lord to reveal the times of yes and no in your life. When have you made decisions based on what you thought about something? Then ask Him to show you when you have yielded to the yes of God.