Kenneth Copeland - The Prayer of Agreement
First words. What's in your heart in abundance. Now, the 18th chapter of the book of Matthew. A lot of forgiveness is involved in that. You don't start with the prayer of agreement. In the 18th chapter. I mean, if you're going into an agreement situation and you're going to make an agreement, you're going to write down an agreement, you need to read the whole 18th chapter. Well, we're interested tonight in this prayer.
Now, you come down and there's something I want you to see here. "Again I say unto you..." in the 19 verse. "Again I say unto you..." So, this is not the first time he thought this. So now back up. "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask," This is an agreement. You can't have an agreement just with one person. "It shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them". Why? To carry out that agreement. I mean, he's here right now.
Well, Gloria and I learned a whole lot about this over the years. And we would pray and set ourselves in agreement with someone. But we didn't just say, well, what do you think? No, no, no. You discuss this. You take time to talk about it. Now, Gloria, what do you think about this situation? What do you have on your heart about it? What is the Lord telling you about it? Any husbands and wives ought to be the most powerful agreement. I mean, you ought to... The devil ought not be able to get away with anything in your household, particularly anything financial. Money is the easy part. Amen.
If you know the laws of it and where the angels are involved in, anyway, well, let me take a moment with that. You watch Nancy Dufresne? Boy I mean, isn't she just dynamite. Well, her husband Ed. I knew Ed before I knew Nancy and I go way, way back. Well, back in the day and I've told you this before, but I want you to see this because it has to do with the angels part of this. And they're part of the prayer. The church that they had at the time, the property had become much more valuable and the bank did not want them to have it. They would not give them any more extensions. They were not going to let them have any more. They wanted that property back and they just wanted that church out of there.
So they had been praying about it, he was preaching in another city. And this is back when, you know, hotels didn't have the kind of keys that they have now. I mean, they were actual physical keys. And he heard the key in the door and he thought, the hotel has given somebody my key. And he was dressing, he was preparing. So he just walked around to see. And when he walked around in that living room, part of that room, the ceiling disappeared. And there were two angels standing there that if the ceiling hadn't disappeared, their head and shoulders would have been out through the ceiling and they were standing there like this. He said, "Who are you"? They said, "We are your prosperity angels. We've come to help you get the money for the church". He said, "Well, what are you waiting on"? They said, The command. He said, "Go".
And they just disappeared. Well, they were up to the deadline. They had to have $500,000. And he and his lawyer there and his office and his secretary came in and said, "There's a man want to talk to you". And Ed said, "No, no". She said, "You want to talk to this one". He came in in his jogging suit. He was a lawyer. He walked in there. He said, "I don't know why I'm doing this. I've heard you preaching, you scare me, but here's $300,000. Well, that's what the bank wanted to hold it. So he was in another... They still needed $200,000. And the pastor was receiving the offering and this lawyer was dressed and on the front row.
And so Ed was back here or some ways or another way to get his eye. And he pointed to him and Ed was saying, no, he's already given... But the pastor didn't see that. He said, "What about you, sir"? He got up and he said, "Well, I got to repent". He said, "The Lord said, 500,000, I disobeyed, here's the other". You better be careful about what you say about situations like that. You want to stay right on the line. And do you know what they call Pastor George? Captain confession, I wish they call me that. If I had thought of that, I'd of called himself that. He's Captain confession. When that blew up in my back, I never did. I would not allow myself to say... I did say this one time. I said, "Lord why, how long... How long"? He said, "When you give me something to work with, that's how long.
Well, I had the square off and I said, "I repent, sir. I will not let that get in my mouth". Well, I continued to do that and there was a man contacted me and he talked to me about a stem cell situation. So I went into prayer and I prayed about it for some time. I listened to the Lord about it and I prayed over it and prayed over. Now you need to be careful with these kind of situations. You don't want to go into it without prayer, particularly if you don't know who that person is. He may be just squirting water up your spine for $10,000. It happens. I prayed about it and David checked in on it and checked and looked into it. And every time I prayed about it, every time I prayed about it, every time I prayed about it, and finally I said, "Lord, I believe this is you". He said, "It is, go ahead".
And that was over a period of weeks and weeks. So I went, and I don't mind telling you for a little bit there, Oh, sister, oh, brother. Oh, dear Lord. Hmm. Because my spine had come in the spinal stenosis and had gotten, but there wasn't room enough for it, and there was considerable amount of it. I'm telling you, it was painful. I had to be very cautious of what came out of my mouth. They said, "How are you doing"? I said, "I'm doing wonderfully well. I am a healed man, thank you". And they put me in a wheelchair and rode me out to that door. And I laughed all the way to the door. Ha ha ha. Glory to God. Glory to God. I said, "Let me out of this thing. I'm going to get to the car like that".
Four months to the day the pain stopped... Because of the stem cells? No, no, no. Because of the abundance of the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the angels of God put me with a man that was just about ready to retire. And he was a retired Air Force medical doctor and he was Catholic. And he came in one time and he said, "I want to ask you something". I said, "What"? And he asked me a question and I answered it. And he said, "Glory to God. I knew that's what you'd say". So here I get to minister to the man. Then he retired. Hallelujah. First words.
Now, what about agreement? Well, I mean, there was an agreement. Of course, we've been having agreements with this operation here for 42 years. They know us and we know them. But you come in here and they say, "Well okay we'll have this much and the air conditioning is going to operate so many hours a day and you have access to the building... and there's going to be these people and they say, yeah, we agree to that. You agree to this"? "Yeah, we agree to that. You agree that". "Yeah". "And you're going to have this many thousand dollars on that"? "Boy, we sure hope so". Forget it. There's no agreement.
Now, listen to what this says in the Amplified. This is just so amazing to me, but this is what it takes. "I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven. For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My followers) in (into) My name, there I Am in the midst of them". Into my name. His name is at the bottom line of this thing. Hallelujah.
Well, I was teaching on this again there in Shreveport, and Joe Mumford was there and he was in the Young People's Ministry, good singer, had a great voice and I was believing God for the money on 2618 Golf. I knew that airplane. I knew it was ours. And this is where I started. This is the way the first $5000 came was on this. I said, "Joe", I've been teaching on this, the same way I'm teaching you. I said, "Let's make us an agreement covenant". "Yeah, what about"? I said, "I believe in God for a certain amount of money. Here's $25". He took it. We prayed over it and so I don't know, a couple of days, right there in the meeting, there was a woman just walked up to me and said, "Brother Copeland, I just believe the Lord wants me to just hand you $500 cash for whatever it is your believing for". I said, "Thank you".
2618 Golf come in right in his pocket right here. So I went over to Joe and I said, "Joe, I tell you right now, I want to appreciate this man. That covenant of ours, that agreement covenant..." He said, yeah. I said, "It produced $500". He said, "Glory to God. There ain't nothing I can do with $25. Let's make another one". He said, "I've got some bills I got to pay". And so we went through the whole thing again and we agreed with one another, and we put it down on paper and we agreed and we prayed and we're in agreement.
The next day there was a woman in the church came around there and said, "Brother Joe Mumford..." She said something like this, said, "You know, we should be supporting you better. My husband and I decided we just need to give you and Sherry $2500," glory to God. He came around there with me said, "You still got that $25"? "Yeah". He said, "Don't spend it. We can make a living off of this thing". We'll just keep making that same covenant. It works. But you have to be in agreement. You can't start thinking, Well, I wonder if this is going to make... No, that's not an agreement. Have you ever been to a symphony concert? When they tune up, you kind of have to hold your ears like this while they tune up.
That's a nasty sounding thing. That's most Christian's agreement... because there's so much strife to start with that there's no agreement there. Well, what happens when that conductor says... and the symphony comes. And to me, there's nothing quite like a big symphony orchestra that is really good, that has all the pieces, all the different kind of vital instruments, all the way from the violin to the big bow bass and the cello and everybody, all at once... And the whole place is filled with those sound that you cannot get out of any one of those instruments alone. The piano is the only one that can make all the sounds at once, and when they all quit and the piano plays, you wonder where everybody went.
Agreement, everybody in agreement and everybody, listen, everybody in tune. They are all agreeing with one another and some clown up there that decides he wants to solo, that this might be his chance to get discovered and he'll blow the whole symphony. And on the first break, he's going to hear it from that director. What's the matter with you? How about you just sit the next one out? Or how about you just don't come back. What'd Jesus say? Whatever they shall ask... It's important that both ask and both agree.
I remember Brother Hagin talking about this couple. They had a lot of property and a lot of houses. And they were in agreement. They said agreement about these different houses and they began to sell when they'd been on the market a while and they began to sell and all except this one. And it just didn't work. And they kept going over their agreement and it just didn't work. And they discussed it and it just didn't work. And finally they got serious. He said, "Are we in agreement"? She said, "Well, I kind of like to keep that house..." She wasn't in agreement and there wasn't anybody want it.
So they discussed it. She decided yes. And they got in agreement and there was a contract on the house. This is important. You can set yourself in agreement on household matters and particularly when you have children and you treat your children in love. But you're a solid front where they're concerned. And Kellie would come in and all children think it's something new. And every parent in here has been through it if you've got two or more. If Mama says we can go, can I go? "I don't know, I haven't talked to Momma". "Well, if she says we can go, can I go"? "I don't know. That is so frustrating. Well, why don't you talk to her"?
I don't know that I want to talk to her. You know, that's kind of mean. But what do you do? You go find out. What do you think about that, Gloria? You know anything about those people? You know anything about their home? "Well, no, I don't, not really". "Well, I just assume John and Kellie not go over there, not knowing any more than we do". She said, "I agree". So we're going to have this discussion again. If Momma says we can go, we can go? "Yeah, that's good, if she says you can go, you can go". You go in there, if daddy says we can go, can we go? And she said, yeah, if daddy says you can go, you can go and you come back there, we can go.
I said, "What are you talking about"? She didn't say you could go and I'm not saying you could go. How did you know? I said, You know how we know, we discussed it. You always do that. And John came up to me one time. He was so disgusted, he came over there to me and he said, "Daddy, how come you always know what I'm thinking before I think it"? I said, "Because I thought it before you ever did boy, go on, I know what you're thinking. I've already been there and what I'm doing to you, my daddy did to me". "Aw..." I said, "Well aw if you want to".
Now I'll tell one on John and Alex, his daughter. He told her to do something. She said, "Why"? He said, "Cause I'm boss". She said, "I want to be boss". He said, "Not today". But you don't start this thing out of agreement. And it may come to the point if it's some, you know, worthy of it, that you bring the whole family in on it, and you get the book out. Well, we want to go to the movie with those children. So and so kids from school. Are we going to come to an agreement on this or not? You don't take these things lightly and you have to teach on the level. I wish I have known this early on that I learned later that you teach this agreement and you teach it for the family.
Now, Kellie and John fussed all the time, but we get down to believing something they wanted, they came to me one time. Kellie said, "Daddy, we want a boat". I said, okay. But I said, "I'll tell you what, you and John are going to have to believe for it. And mom and I won't get out of agreement. You are going to have to use your faith. We'll just agree with you. But it's going to be your faith". Well, they wrote out an agreement. That's what we taught them to do. And Kellie wrote it out and John scribbled a name underneath the bottom. Well they tacked it up on the refrigerator, and they'd come by and they'd say, Thank You, Jesus, for the boat.
Now hey, that's a good idea. Put some stick up on the cabinets all over the house. I talked to one. Well, I'll tell you who it was, Bill Winston. He was believing in something and he said... this is while he was in seminary in Tulsa and he said, those stick-ups. He said, "I raised up a toilet lid and there was one stuck on there, you got to confess it when you come into the bathroom". And it worked just exactly like the petition. Because, see, the agreement is part of the petition right now. Are you getting anything out of this? You're seeing how this works? And faith has to work all the way through this thing. And the faith comes from what Jesus said in the book, it will be done with my father. I said, "It will be done". It shall and that's the strongest you can say in English language. It will be done.