And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:11-12 ESV

Earlier in this course we looked at the agreements we are making with the Lord or the enemy. 21

Because agreements are a primary foundation of spiritual authority we are going to look at this topic again, here with the basis of a historical and Biblical precedent. Then, in the next chapter we look at it again in terms of the specific agreements we have made. Then we will look at this again in terms of how we can stand in the gap regarding the agreements of our communities and nations.

  1. Theology of Agreements
  2. Discernment of the personal Agreements we have made
  3. Standing in the Gap regarding the agreements of our communities

Today, let us look at the Theology of Agreements:

The Bible speaks about the second or third witness and how when two or more are gathered in the Lord’s name that what is asked for is done,

“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. “ Matthew 18:19 ESV

In addition to this we know that in matters of law and court a second witness is necessary. Apostle Paul wrote,

“This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” 2 Corinthians 13:1 ESV

And, practically speaking we understand that business goes forward on the basis of those in agreement,

We find reference to this practice in Ruth 4:1-12.

In light of this need for testimony and the importance of a second witness all through both scriptures and history, imagine this:

You are standing. On your right is God and what God says about you, the beautiful, encouraging, affirming, and loving words over your life.

On your left is Satan and what Satan says about you, the ugly, slanderous, condemning, lying and deceiving, and hateful words about your life and motives.

God is declaring the good plans for you, the life he has available, the ministries and influences, the good works, made just for you.

Satan is declaring destructions, loss, chaos and degradations, and all that Satan seeks to rob from you.

God is declaring about your future, declaring his love for you, declaring hope and a promise of life.

Satan is spewing hatred and shame about your past, spewing condemnation and death.

There are two voices, two intentions, one for life and purpose, the other for death and loss. And you, standing between the two, hearing both, and you provide the second witness.

You, by your words and actions declare if you are agreeing with Satan or with God.

You are the second witness. We are the witnesses to God, as we read in Isaiah,

“I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.” Isaiah 43:12 ESV

We read about John and how “He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.” John 1:7 ESV

Is your life, your words, your actions, the decisions you are making, the way you are living, do these things bear witness to God or to Satan? Do we bear witness to the light, to life, to miracles, to the Spirit, to the goodness of God, or not?

Many years ago I was personally working through the many bad things that had happened in my life. I had been realizing the resulting destructive behaviors in my life and was looking for the Lord’s healing and freedom. With raw emotion I clearly saw the destruction over my life, the initial attacks, my own crippling dysfunctions and immense hatreds as a result, and into that ugly process God asked me this,

“In light of all that has gone bad in your life, in light of all that is ugly and oh so wrong,

  • Will you love me?
  • Will you trust me?
  • Will you know me to be good?”

It was an experience of being at the cross once more, of seeing the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the salvation of Christ, and deciding once more, do I want him and will I accept him?

  • In spite of everything that had gone wrong would I agree with Satan or with God?

What witness would I give?

It lands with us. We either give witness to the enemy in our lives OR to God in our lives — Not both — For a divided house will fall, Luke 11:17. We must choose and live accordingly.

Long story short I chose to agree with God, that he is love, that I can trust him, and that he is good.

It wasn’t easy and it took some time to really fully realize these things in my life. But that day when God confronted me with the choice I had to make, to either agree with who God is in and through my life or to agree with the attacks of the enemy upon my life, changed my life. It is because I took the risk to say yes to God and his character in a new way, in a fresh way for me at that time, that I am living and experiencing the things of God in my life today.

So what happens when we whole-heartedly shift our agreements to God? Here are a few of the things that I have observed as we choose to be a second witness for the Lord:

  1. We let go of needing God to make account of our life.

We let God off the hook, so to speak, about the things that have gone wrong. We may not be aware but often we are angry at God for the things that have gone wrong in our personal journey’s. It is important that we are honest about this before him, for in this honesty we know he has heard us and we are then free to move forward in a new way.

  1. We move our gaze from what has been to what will be.

Our focus shifts from the past to the present and the future. We grow forward. It is important to reconcile the past journey of our lives. As we look back we acknowledge and nurture and recognize the difficulty. Doing this we nurture our lives and from this place of validation we can truly turn our gaze to the future that God has for us.

  1. In this we surrender our past to the Lord.

We give it over as a gift of sorts, allowing the full working of God through it. God wants to give opportunity for us to invest our experiences, even when they are hard and bad, in his Kingdom for the healing and freedom of others. As we agree that all of who we are and all of what we have been through is for his glory and honor and for our future and delight. Here there is a spiritual authority and a deep knowing of God himself, that begins to speak out of all of who we are and the entirety of our journey’s — our life becomes a message of him.

The attitudes of our heart shift to:

  • Worship – we give God the praise
  • Gratitude – our hearts are grateful
  • Trusting – our future rests in the Lord

The thing is, as the second witness we choose how our life will go. Our words and actions are incredibly powerful and as a second witness they speak volumes.

“For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:37 ESV

“The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.” Ecclesiastes 10:12 ESV

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45 ESV

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.” Proverbs 18:21 NLT

Step back from your own life for a moment. Think of just yesterday and the things you chose to do, the manner in which you acted, the words that came from your mouth, considering the self-talk that was in your head and heart. To whom were you giving second witness? Did your thoughts reflect the truth that God speaks over you and others, or did your thoughts reflect the lies that Satan speaks over you.

To whom are you in agreement?

With a bit of introspection and prayer we can look at all areas of our lives and the way we go about living and see quite easily where we are agreeing with God or not. The point of course being, that we want to be the second witness to God (not the enemy) in our lives.

Take note that the things of the enemy have a spirit of:

  • Condemnation
  • Criticism
  • Doubt
  • Fear

Agree with these things in emotion, thought, word, or action and you will get what you are focusing on. Make choices based on fear and you will strengthen the stronghold of fear on your life. Speak words riddled with doubt and you will increase the doubt in your life. Literally.

The things of God are marked by:

  • Acceptance
  • Courage
  • Grace
  • Generosity

Agree with these things in emotion, thought, word, or action and you will receive back these good things. Make choices based on generosity and you will live an expansive open life. Speak words laden with grace and you will live life flavored by grace.

The manner by which you do life is completely and 100% yours to decide. No one is living your life but you. To whom will you give witness?

Becoming our own second witness unto life (God is the first witness unto your life Psalm 139:13-16) is really about coming into alignment with God’s purposes over our lives and our emotions, thoughts, words and actions become declarations to Him.

To assist our study the definition of DECLARE is:

‘To make known formally, officially, or explicitly. (Mirriam-Webster.com)’

Declaration is about intention. Becoming a second witness is all about being explicit and intentional. And in the spirit realm it is important to declare, to make known that we are standing with God and renouncing the work of the enemy over our lives, just as the Psalmist declared,

“I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.” Psalm 118:17 ESV

Now, you have done this in a general big-picture way over your life. When you realized Christ as saviour and Lord you declared by life and actions an agreeing with God and not Satan.

Now, and this is the part that we are not generally taught, this agreeing can become deeper still, worked out so to speak, in the small areas of our lives, in the hidden spaces of our hearts, and in the unknown realities of our conclusions about life, self, God, and others.

It can take some time for the previous verse, Psalm 118:17, to settle in and through our own lives and being. Consider everything in your life, all the nuances and the subtitles of your life, as well as all the tangible and concrete – are you living, declaring by action, life or death?

Once we know in our own hearts, deep in our own psyches that God is for us, and have accepted and agreed with him we can then declare in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that he is for others. And quite simply this is the spiritual authority that we carry.

Let me say that again:

Once we have accepted and declared the voice of the Lord over our own lives. Once we have agreed to his good plan for us, his heart for us, his love for us, his purposes for us, we can then declare God for others, agreeing with God for their lives. This is the core of all Spiritual Authority — the declaration of God’s good intent and care over another’s life (family, community, nation).

When we are working one on one with someone, when we are holding spaces for a gathering of people, or when we are putting action to the betterment of many, we are by word and action agreeing with God and in that we are creating the second witness. We are walking in the spiritual authority that each one of us is meant to walk in. And all of heaven and earth is moved.

“And then I’ll enter the darkness, I’ll break the yoke from their necks.” Jeremiah 30:8a TM

Our declarations, be them through word or action and on behalf of others are powerful, powerful places of spiritual authority as we are driven by the love of God.

So, let’s look at some of the ways that a second witness works out through who we are. Some of these I’ve mentioned before, a few of them I have not. As you read through these consider and think about your own life and heart and words and bring yourself deeper into agreement with God today, both for yourself and others:

  1. A Second Witness is declared through our Words:

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:21 ESV

Words are very important. They literally carry the power of life and death.

Even before our spirits agree with God we can speak agreement. Our words impact others and they impact us. A primary discipline for each of us and of spiritual authority is to harness our words well.

Words reveal what is in our hearts, and words can change what is in our hearts. So we speak life and peace and honor and dignity, compassion and respect and love, and our hearts and lives will be changed unto these things.

“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Romans 10:10 ESV

Words are powerful and by them we are changed as we give witness to the Lord in the words that we choose and speak.

  1. A Second Witness is declared through our Theology (our understanding of God):

Agreeing with God brings us to a higher level of thinking and of compassion than the level of right and wrong. Too often in our Christianity we are consumed with law, forgetting that Christ came to override the law with something much better called grace. His coming has ‘covered over’ all sin with love.

The things we focus on reveal our agreement with law or with grace. Our preoccupation declares, and sets a space, for others. What are we declaring? What is our focus? How big is our God? Do we focus on the failures of others or do we focus on their intentions and all that God is growing them to be?

We want our second witness to be about the bigness of God that understands us and welcomes us and continues to give us time to learn and to grow in him and alongside others. Our manner with others must also be in agreement, acted out just like Christ acted on earth.

  1. A Second Witness is declared through the Attitude we convey:

We can in our Christian tenacity actually take on agreement with hell and not with God! When we put shame onto another we are doing the work of hell. When we condemn and criticize we are agreeing with hell, not God. Gossip, slander, disdain, and accusation are marks of Satan, not God.

Ranting and raving, intentional about hating all that is not of God, is in fact the enemies work. Satan doesn’t care that we hate him, he just wants us to hate. We can be doing the right thing but with the wrong spirit in our hearts. God’s heart brings a much different feel. God leaves us feeling safe, affirmed, valued, cherished and such. We must ensure that we are leaving the same tone as the Lord in all our interactions. And this is the result of our attitudes deep inside our being.

Our attitudes matter and they reveal, very clearly, if we agree with God’s love and patience or not.

  1. A Second Witness is declared through our Actions:

What we believe plays out in our choices and our decisions. Actions speak louder than words. Look at a life and you will see the core beliefs and manner of being of that person. Therefore, the actions we take are either agreeing with heaven or with hell. The choices we make either declare God, or Satan.

The power of a life aligned with God cannot be underestimated. In all things it is a process of coming into further alignment with God’s heart over us. This won’t happen all at once and we must give time to be transformed into the image of Christ.

Yet, as we allow this work, this alignment of our lives unto God is in fact the Kingdom of God come to earth. When we declare in word and deed the heart of God over others, when we create a second witness of God over others, all heaven and earth moves.

This is our spiritual authority. It is how we are to lead and to impact this world for Jesus Christ.

Where we take the power of our minds and our words, of the truths that we know and the freedoms we ourselves have experienced and pour them out and over others for their freedom, for their grace, for their benefit, this is where we agree with heaven. And the whole world shifts.

There is one last way that we either agree with God or not, and this is through our emotions.

  1. A Second Witness is declared through our Emotions:

Now emotions have had a bad rap in the Christian community. From years back we have been afraid of emotions. But I want you to consider that emotions are another way that we either agree or don’t agree with the heart of God.

For instance, consider this verse:

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

  • How does this verse strike you?
  • What emotional response do you experience?
  • Can your spirit rest and settle into this verse, or do you shrink back and away from it?
  • Does it comfort or does it bring fear?

Your response is your emotions alerting you to the true state of your heart (in specific response).

Make Note: with our mouths we may say, “God loves me” but then we read an obviously intimate verse like this and we may have a strong emotional reaction AWAY from it. We are startled more often than not. Here our emotions are giving testimony (declaring a second witness) that we do not believe God loves us as much as we thought, or at the very least that we are not really comfortable with God’s love.

We must, as a body of people, bring our emotions into agreement with the heart of God as well. For in the alignment of how we feel about God at our deepest core, here is the fire in the belly that can act out the heart of God on this earth. Without a fire in our bellies we are crippled in our passions and compromised in our ability to usher in the kingdom of God.

Let me say that again:

  • Our emotions are the seat of passion and of will.
  • Our emotions must be aligned with the passion and will of God.
  • This begins in our personal response to God.

As we allow him to change our negative emotional responses to his deep love and grace over our lives, we will then be free to live out God’s heart on earth – and this, living out God’s Heart on earth – is spiritual authority.

Let me give you an example. When I am confronted by a request to pray for healing over someone I have a choice. I can either mouth the words and hope to God something will happen, or I can dig deep into my gut and find the fiery love of the Father and declare healing in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ ‘… because I KNOW that God has healed me and he will heal this person.’

I have found that this is where miracles take place. When our hearts respond in welcome to the Lord and come to express his heart for others, this is where God’s passion intersects with our passion and miracles happen here.

God is big enough for all of who we are. He knows our hearts after all, before we do. He is aware of the subtleties of our thoughts and motives and all our indiscretions, aware of our dishonesties and the lies, and he loves us nonetheless. In fact, this journey with Jesus Christ is an invitation to enter into raw intimacy and honesty with our Lord. It is not an invitation to sterility or purity (of our own making) and it is certainly not an invitation to dry and dead good works.

Rather, we go forward choosing him, declaring his goodness, finding his love for ourselves, acting out compassion and justice, finding grace every step of the way, and through this we are changed. Through this our worlds are changed. Our words take on his manner, our actions declare his goodness, and our emotions ring true with his heart and our choices come to reveal him.

I am excited to be at this point in the conversation. I am excited for you as you intentionally choose the witness you will be giving and the declarations you will be making.

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17 ESV

PRAYER

“God we come to you today in the name and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we want hearts and lives that agree with you and your LIFE in all ways. But we need your help. Only by your revelation and only by your transformation can we become aligned with you in all things. Please help us. Please help me. We wait on you to heal us, to restore us, to make us new and to work out your beauty and strength through our lives, in our families, for our communities, and over our nations. This we say yes and amen to in the name and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen and amen.”

APPLICATION

  • What have been some of the things that the enemy speaks to you?
  • What condemnations run through your mind?
  • What negative assumptions do you carry and that feel true to you?
  • What lies have you been believing about God?
  • What shame have you been believing about yourself?
  • What bad things have you been believing about others?

These types of questions help us to open our hearts and minds to both the Lord and to ourselves. There is no growth or transformation without the courage to first see what is within us. For only as we honestly see our agreements with the enemy can we begin to bring these to the cross of Christ, allowing them to be exchanged with the truth of God’s word and God’s heart for us and others.

It is critical that we put down our guard and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal and show us our hearts. But of course, this is hard work, and so today this is the only work we will do. Part of this work is simply prayer. We get on our knees, we become quiet in the Spirit, and we wait on the revelation of the Lord.

We sit in God’s presence, we do not speak, we wait and listen, resting in the presence of God and the ability of the Lord to tell us what we need to know.

This is the Application for today. Take some time. Put aside all distractions. Become quiet before the Lord. Listen. What is God telling you?

The Holy Spirit may reveal to you one thing and she 22 may reveal to you many things. Each is good and okay. The important thing is to take what the Holy Spirit reveals to you and bring that new honesty and understanding to the cross of Christ.

“Jesus I bring you (name what the Holy Spirit showed you), and I give it to you. I declare the stronghold of this upon my life is broken today in the power of my Lord Jesus Christ. Today I take on new thinking, new ways (name what the Holy Spirit is giving you), in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.”

Remember to do this out loud, for when our hearts and lips agree we experience and declare our saving. Use the full Inner Healing Model as taught in Module One pages 30-34, and as Appendix in this Module Two, page 180-182.

Pray through to healing in this way, for as many strongholds as the Holy Spirit reveals and leads.

SUMMARY – THE SECOND WITNESS
God is speaking life, hope, peace, joy Jeremiah 29:11

Satan is speaking destruction, lies, condemnations 1 Peter 5:8

You and I, we create the second witness Matthew 18:19; Colossians 2:8; Colossians 3:17

We decide who we agree with Joshua 24:15

______________________________
21 See Module One, Chapter 5, AGREEMENTS, https://collegeofcapturingcourage.org/chapter-5-agreements/
22 In Genesis 1:26-27 ESV we read, “Then God said, “Let us make man* [ * a generic term for mankind] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” We have male and female as a result of who God is, we are made in the image of God. We have God the Father, Jesus the Son, and our Holy Spirit, who we know as the feminine part of God. The original Greek word for Holy Spirit is neuter in terms of gender, and the original Hebrew word for Holy Spirit is feminine in form. God is both male and female and yet our English language forces us to use either a male or female personal pronoun. In many languages around the world this is not the case and person is not referred to as either male or female. Out of all these variables we have not understood or even considered that the Holy Spirit may be the feminine part of God – in this course we make room for this.

=> The next lesson is on The Agreements We Make

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