Find The 3
"Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" Amos 3:3, NKJV
Agreement must be an extremely difficult thing to get. In my experience it has been. I'm on the team of a church plant right now and getting on the same page has certainly been among our chief challenges. In fact, sometimes I wonder if we are even reading from the same book - or maybe I'm the only one even looking at a book - or vice versa. Working in any sort of team is an interesting thing. I've been on some really, really good ones and some others that were a team in name only. In every case, for better or worse, the whole ordeal seems to come down to agreement. On the bad basketball teams I was on, it was because we had a few guys (or even just one guy) who thought the team should be serving his own personal desire to score the ball. The rest of us were pretty sure that's not what we were going to do.
On the good teams, there is always clear direction and absolute agreement about going in that direction. All differences were ironed out in light of that direction and agreement. Jesus says, "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:19-20, NKJV emphasis added). Only two or three.
I did say that I'm in search of 120, and I am, but Jesus makes it far easier than that. Two or three. That's all we need to agree so we can get Jesus' presence. And what can't we do if we have Jesus with us? The only hard part seems to be getting three people to agree, especially for any length of time.
Why is it such a rare thing to have agreement? It's not easy to get in a marriage, where you have the highest possible motivation to make sacrifices and do whatever it takes to keep walking together. How can we hope to have it among people who have far less entrenched motivation to stay together? Could it be that our enemy knows how important it is to disrupt the unity of Jesus' kingdom and that most of our warfare should be directed to "keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?"
If the only way to get to the thousands is to have the 120 then the only way to get the 120 is to find the 3.
Scott Bane
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Okay Scott, you are really on the right track here. In my experience it is absolutely key that the first person you need to be on the same page with is your wife! Soooo, once you get Sheryl on board it is really pretty simple, you just need one more :) My most fruitful and fun (yet hard and not without opposition) ministry experience was birthed out of the agreement of four people, a husband and wife, myself and one other guy. We didn't all work as hard to do the work of the ministry but we each filled our role. Unfortunately, as in all good things, the life of this operation was only about 7 years, but they were good ones. It took a decree from a Superior Court to shut us down! Maybe this was a once in a lifetime experience, I was hoping not, but we shall see...My thought on how to find the three? Ask the Holy Spirit, he seems to be pretty good at putting teams together...
Blessings,
Charlie
So true! Love it! This is so true in so many cases. Reminds me of K.I.S.S. (keep it simple silly)! I have to remind my self of the steps and to simplify! Great post, how many times have I had to deal with good or bad teams and sometimes gotten ahead of myself! Or made it bigger or more difficult than it should have been!
This is a timely post for me, since I opened my big mouth and volunteered myself to do something (mostly because I was so angry about how wrong something was.) My goal is to train a few people in it, then back out. The hope is that they will train others, and they will train others, etc. That is the ideal, is it not? Now, just to find those few...
I'll definitely be asking the Holy Spirit to show me, just as Charlie said.
What an interesting question, why is it so hard to find agreement? I thought about that within my own circle of relationships. I can look to my own best friend Jeremias and see the many areas where we don't see eye to eye - even on the matters of God. Me and Dave, even more differences. With Kyle we see things of this world differently and so on and so on. It's funny because one of the only people I seem to constantly agree with is you PS. Great minds think alike! But seriously what is agreement and how is it achieved? Then on top of that you have to agree upon the right things. The blind can lead the blind but they'll both end up in a ditch so you better be agreeing with someone who is right. The people who built the Tower of Babel are a perfect example of that. But again why is it so hard to find agreement? hmmmm... I think the pride of life probably has a lot to do with it but we could get off on a tangent thinking and talking about that.
Have you ever meditated on the idea of the Holy Spirit being someone we can come into agreement with here on earth? Or does He count? Is He "technically" on earth? You know what I mean? Something to think about. He is an Advocate though and we need to take up other's causes and be advocates too. When we get beyond ourselves and take up a fight, become an advocate, the raw nature of things is to come into agreement with whoever you are defending or helping.
Great comments, everyone. Thanks for contributing! Mike I love your questions. I've been probing into those same issues. I definitely believe that the first "Person" we need to agree with is the Holy Spirit. One way I've identified that agreement is to know which way He wants to communicate to people and at what time. For example, if the Spirit is offering someone Counsel, I don't want to be offering Help. I want to agree with the Spirit, not my own intuition about what a person needs. This is a faith step because you're never "sure" that you're communicating the Spirit effectively.
The key passage on it in Scripture is 2 Corinthians 3. We've been made "able ministers" of the Spirit of the New Covenant. Therefore, we should be bold about doing it. That's my present understanding anyway.
Peace.