S4 Ep. 5: The Power of Agreement: Unlocking Heaven on Earth

When our hearts align with God’s heart, heaven moves on earth. In this episode, Allen and Stacy Jo unpack what biblical agreement really is (not compromise), how pride fractures unity, and why humility, truth, and love create breakthrough in marriage, leadership, and mission.

In this conversation you’ll hear:

• What “agreement” is in the Kingdom and what it is not
• Why fear and faith cannot coexist and how our words direct outcomes
• How to clarify vision so you are truly talking about the same thing
• Why offense secretly divides and how to release it quickly
• The 5-part Agreement Framework you can start using today

Key Scriptures
John 13:34–35; Isaiah 54:17; 1 Peter 5:8–10; Proverbs 18:21; James 1:8; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Ecclesiastes 4:9–12; Matthew 6:9–13

5 Action Steps (Agreement Framework)

1. Pray together consistently
2. Speak the same language of faith
3. Clarify the vision in writing
4. Deal with offense quickly
5. Surround yourself with aligned people

Challenge of the Week
Pick one area of disunity (marriage, business, team, or thought life). Write it down. Ask the Holy Spirit where you are out of alignment and how to realign. Create one Speak Life declaration from Scripture and say it daily. If you are married or leading with a partner, book a short prayer-and-planning session and get on the same page.

Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and episode setup
02:12 Agreement vs compromise
06:18 Faith that looks “illogical” but obeys
11:10 The enemy hates unity (1 Peter 5:8)
15:45 Words build worlds (Proverbs 18:21)
20:22 Double mindedness derails progress (James 1:8)
24:30 Humility unites; pride divides (2 Corinthians 12:9)
28:58 Love as the non-negotiable (John 13:34–35)
33:05 The 5-step Agreement Framework
41:10 This week’s challenge and prayer

Resources & Links
Website: faithfullyinvested.com
Email: info@faithfullyinvested.com

Subscribe & Share
If this encouraged you, share it with a friend or spouse and leave a review. New episodes every Wednesday.
“When we invest in His Kingdom, He brings the increase.”

Transcript

0:01

Are you ready to build a life, business and legacy that truly lasts? Welcome to Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne, where Faith meets real talk. Biblical wisdom meets everyday life and leadership meets laughter. Together we will uncover God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, helping faith-driven leaders invest in what matters most. Each episode, we explore biblical wisdom, have real conversations, and of course, have some fun along the way because let's be real. Walking in faith is an adventure. It sure is. So pull up a seat, grab your coffee or your sweet tea, and join us as we steward our callings with intention, because when we invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase. Hey, welcome back to Faithfully Invested, where we uncover God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission. I am Allen, and I am Stacy Jo. And today we are talking about the power of agreement because, you know, different perspectives open up opportunities for us to grow together with Christ in the middle. Absolutely. We must have Christ at the center, right? Uh, admittedly, when it comes to yielding to the Holy Spirit. Concerning opposing views, I have room for improvement. It's a true story. I have to remember that. He's the Holy Spirit of truth who's bringing me all the truth. That's what the word said, and oftentimes I just need to back off, sit down, be quiet, and listen to what the truth is. Oh wow. I'm gonna write that down. Yeah, I'm gonna put it in the show notes. I need something to write it down on that. You're enjoying that a little too much. I just like that you came into agreement with the way I feel sometimes. Well, hey, that's what we're talking about. Oh, but, but honestly, you know, when it comes to his kingdom agreement, based on his will and his way will open doors to awaken us to God's. Promises in our lives together. Absolutely. Regardless of who it is. Yeah, man, you nailed that babe. Uh, with when our hearts align and abide with, with his perspective over our own, because his ways are always higher and greater than our ways. Right. Uh, when, when we yield to that, it releases power, peace, and progress. Uh, the enemy of our soul wants nothing more than to divide us and conquer us, but when we decide to take the high road of unity with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit and with each other, there's nothing that the enemy can do to stop our creator, father, God's purpose for us. That's, yeah, absolutely. And I think about an example, as we were in our lives, as we were getting ready to start faithfully invested, we didn't really align on whether we should do it or shouldn't do it. Um. It sounded like a good idea and it seemed like God was, you know, aligning everything for that. But it was, it was an investment mainly more so than anything. An investment of time. Yeah. And it's a lot of work and we really wondered if we had what it takes to endure it in the long run and not just have it become an expensive hobby. Right. And truth be told, initially I saw it as a get to. Wow. My baby cake's here and yes, I do call him. That was stuck on it being occasionally, often you're even in my phone as my baby cakes, but, but you were kind of stuck on it as being a got to rather than a get to. Yeah. You know, your big thing was, I don't know that this really fits our schedules would. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah, that's a true story friend. She, uh. Uh, she's many things, but a liar is not one of those things. She is a, let's hope she is a truth telling lady. I love, I love her so much. Uh, she's right. I was, I was stuck in what I've come to know as my finite perspective. Uh, I knew what our current commitments were and it didn't make sense to take on anything else, but when I considered it through the Lord's infinite perspective, it still didn't make sense. Right. But, uh, but he let me know that growth takes risks. So he said, release it to me and see what I'll do with it. You ever hear that? Mm-hmm. Release it to me and see what I'll do with it. It was just another opportunity, uh, for me to see that it's not about me. Uh, it's about him and what he wants to provide to Stacy, Jo, and myself. Uh, he wants to give us this platform to, to share our experience about living in his presence and our all through our lives. Uh,'cause it has and hopes that it helps you. Yeah. And, and yeah. Just sharing experience. Yeah, experience, strength, and hope. Right, right. So, but looking back on this a bit, um, this was our, this was an, this was an opportunity to literally invest faithfully in something that didn't make sense in the beginning. Uh, but how many of you know. That faith doesn't make sense. Faith makes a fool of what makes sense. Yeah. Uh, it does. I mean, you nailed it. So, you know, when we finally landed on the name Faithfully Invested,'cause we'd gone back and forth about different titles and, and it just kind of clicked. It felt right and it aligned like the Holy Spirit put a stamp on it. And I feel like he really did because as. I never expected for, as I went to look for a website, as I went to look for other podcasts for their names to Right. I never expected faithfully invested to be available. Right. And I never in, never in a million years expected. Never in a million years, and I mean, I haven't lived a million years, but I would've never imagined that faithfully invested.com would've been available. Right. And. When I found it, it, it really was like he put his stamp on it and he said, this is what you are supposed to do. Everything came into agreement, everything came into alignment. Right. With regards to this, even down to our mentors. Right. Uh, you know, shout out to, to Sammy and Ray, uh, out of all podcasting, who, you know, really put it. Got us moving on it and gave us all the tools. Yeah. To equip us very motivational. Yeah. To, yeah. To be able to do this. So Yeah. And that's, and, and how, how that all aligned, um, from the top down. Mm-hmm. Uh, it wasn't, uh, it, it had potential to be a good thing, but I've, we've both come to recognize it as a God thing. Right. And that's agreement. That's agreement right there from the top down, and that's what we're looking for. And, and it doesn't have to be rare. A agreement from that. We gotta make sure that it's, it's from him though, right? And uh, and I was not certain of that. Um, but even up until our first, our first, very first recording. And so, and sometimes I look at my schedule, I'm like, man, really? He is like, yeah, dude, go. Um. Anyway, authentic. Agree, authentic agreement isn't saying, okay, let's just do it your way. That's compromise. Mm-hmm. And that's not what we're talking about. Agreement brings peace between us, uh, because we decide to operate from his perspective over our own. Uh, so our hearts align with his plan, and that's what it's all about. That's the core of agreement when our hearts align with his plan. Yeah, if any of this, if anything is going to work, we gotta both agree and we have to agree with his plan. Yeah. It's God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit who enlighten and empower us to align with each other because we align and abide with them first. We have to align and abide with them before we can align and abide with each other. And again, you know, I always go back to the cross. You know, you have to have the vertical before you have the horizontal. That's it in anything. That's it. And, um, all, all I got to say about that is Blammo. Blammo, baby Blammo. I like, I like it when I get blammos. I like Blammo. Blammos are good, but did you know that the enemy absolutely hates agreement? You know, we mentioned earlier that his only plan. Is to divide and derail us. And Peter reminds us in first Peter chapter five, to be sober minded, to be watchful because the devil prowls around like a roaring lying, seeking to devour. And we're told to resist him and stand firm in our faith. And when we decide to stand firm, the God of all grace, he restores. He confirms. He strengthens, and he establishes us right. I heard someone say I, I'm not sure if it was, it, it, I think it might have been Joby Martin. I'm not sure. Uh, could have been Kyle Thompson. Um, might have been someone on the, on the podcast there. Someone on the mini podcast that you listened to? Yeah, yeah. Main, mainly Joby or Kyle's. Yeah. But, um, they. They, uh, said, seeking, uh, the, the, that enemy seeking for someone to devour and seeking. What, what are we doing when we're seeking, if we're seeking something? It's a, it's consistent. Mm-hmm. We're, we're seeking, we we're seeking truth. We are seeking life. Uh, but, but the, what Peter says there, and what you just mentioned is the enemy is seeking. For someone to devour. He's consistently looking and, and devour. When, when you devour something, it's gone. Right? It's he, he's looking to eliminate. So he's consistently on the prowl, like a roaring lion looking to eliminate us. And, and I, I also like what Joby says, uh, pastor Joby says he and, uh, and some, some people think the devil will just make us bad, but. You know, and I love how Ajovy says this, and I can't do it.'cause you know, I'm not from Georgia, but he, uh, he says, if, if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. Mm-hmm. That's something else we gotta look out for. That's right. Because he is consistently seeking for someone to eliminate from God's purpose. Yeah. And yeah. You know, but sometimes we can sabotage ourself with our own words. I mean, we'll pray for a breakthrough, but then we'll speak defeat the next day. Mm-hmm. And the confusion and the chaos is not from God, but it's from our adversary. Again, an example of how he seeks to devour us. Yeah. And that's why it's so beneficial. That's why we have to operate from the truth. Who is Jesus Christ? We serve a God of order, not of chaos. Absolutely. And, and we can't pray in faith and then walk and talk in fear. Right? Fear and faith cannot coexist. Mm-hmm. You, you can't be faithful in one, in one moment and fearful in the next. Again, faith and fear cannot coexist. It's, it's like driving with one foot on the brake and one on the gas. It's just making a bunch of naughty noise and no forward progress. How does that even work? I mean, one foot on the brake and a foot on the gas. How, I mean, I get, I get get, oh know, that sounds like a Hagar is that you que from squeal your tires. Like back in the old days when we would cruise sale'em. Yeah. And it's, they called it power break and they, they'd, they'd hold their foot on the, the brake and then slam on the gas and it, the car just, it might have fishtailed a little bit, but it wasn't going anywhere and it made a whole lot of noise. So a peel out? It was, it was. It was counterproductive. Okay, so and so and so there it is. Trying to, trying to, you know, praying in faith and then, and then walking and talking in fear. It's counterproductive, you know? It sounds like, um, it sounds like anxiety. Yeah. Sounds like that's the turmoil, that that's what it sounds like. Yeah. Nobody, nobody's got time for that. Ain't nobody got time for that. Ain't nobody got time for that. Uh, but, uh, we gotta, we gotta get off the fence people, we gotta get off the fence and stand firm on his authority that's given us his authority. Yeah. That, that Christ gives us. He gives, he's been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Mm-hmm. And he has given, and what he says in Luke is that he gives us the authority to tram on snakes and scorpions, which is symbolic of, of the demonic. He says, I give you authority to stand against all the power of the enemy and that nothing will harm you. And he's talking to his first century disciples. Will, will ask yourself, are you a 21st century disciple? Hmm. Are you walking under an authority of Christ Jesus, our Lord, we got the, the time for fence writing is over. We gotta stand firm on the truth. Yes. Yeah, I know. I can recall, I mean, we've seen, we've seen him work through times like that in our lives. Mm-hmm. I can recall seasons where we would be praying and we would be leaving, would be believing for direction, but then we would get tangled up in busyness or we'd get tangled up in tiredness or fatigue. That really led to doubting out loud. Yeah. When we should have been declaring his truth that he gave us. Um, we, we've grown through it together. A lot. Yeah, a lot. You know, and, and, and, and I will say, you know, we're not, and when she says a lot, she means a lot, a lot, a lot. Right. But, you know, even as, as late as last week, you know, I found myself in a place where I was just praying and believing for direction. Like I should have been praying and believing for direction, but. I was caught up in busyness and I was tired. I was just tired. And I found myself doubting whether I was on the right track, whether I was doing what God had told me to do. Am I, am I really supposed to be doing this? Mm-hmm. But you know, declaring his truth is so important and. You know, going back to the, what is it, um, is it Isaiah 54 17 that says, no weapon formed against us shall prosper? It's, it's Isaiah 54 17. Okay. Because he goes before us and we are vindicated. Yeah. We are his children. We are vindicated by the Lord. And Isaiah's saying this to, to Jerusalem. He's saying this to the Jew Jewish nation and, but. As, as we have, as Christ has come. Mm-hmm. And we are so now we, the gentiles, we we're God's people now too. Mm-hmm. So, so a as we, as we decide for Christ, we have been made. We have, he has, uh, we're righteous and redeemed. Yeah. We are vindicated before, uh, we are made right before the father. So that means that, and man, that's, I I love that smile. Yeah. And because to be made right before the father, after all that I've done back there, you know, and to be made right before the father in Christ that, that's, that's worth smiling over. Yeah. But what, what, what Isaiah was saying, I mean, centuries before seven or eight centuries before, uh, God even sent, uh, Jesus here, is that he's, he didn't say. There won't be a weapon formed. He said, no weapon formed. Mm-hmm. Will be prosper or will will prosper against you. Right. Uh, and he said that this is, this is your heritage as my people. And your vindication comes from me, says the Lord. Mm. Yeah. And Isaiah was, he was, he's a major prophet for a reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. Yeah, we can't expect progress when we loosely agree in prayer and then, and then doubt and disagree elsewhere. Yeah. I mean, this sounds like what James called double mindedness, right? Double mindedness, yeah. Kind of like talking out of both sides of your mouth and a double minded person is unstable in all of their ways. Yeah. And he kicked the, he kicked off his, his, uh. His epistle, uh, that was in chapter one, verse eight. Man, he kicked it off. Right. This, he is like double minded, you know, y'all are double minded speaking to the 12 scattered tribes of Israel. Mm-hmm. And those are some pretty stubborn people. Mm-hmm. Uh, as far as idolatry and, and this, that, and, and what have you. Uh, they were, they were, uh, they were out there, let's just say, um, without going into vast detail, but, uh, it looks like America. You know, uh, today we're a little out there and, uh, we have a, a, a tendency, uh, to be double-minded. So, yeah, it's, it's important to understand who the foundation is, who the cornerstone is, and, and to, to ensure that he's at the center. And that's, that's a daily challenge right there. Yeah. So. And we've had to navigate through those challenges several times over. Right. Um, you know, again, double-minded doesn't progress anywhere, but James also encourages us toward humility. He does, like we've mentioned, we, we talked about humility and pride in, in other episodes. Right. And pride doesn't work well towards mutual agreement. Ever. We can speak firsthand on that. Right. But James informs us of when we humble ourselves before the Lord, he will lift us up. Yeah. Which is to say that humility unifies while pride divides. And the lady said, humility unites while pride divides. Yeah. That is such a simple but brilliant truth. Um, and for that we gotta take it directly to Jesus. Yeah. Gotta take it directly to Jesus. When we, when we get to know him through the scriptures, we discover that there was not one prideful bone in his body. His entire ministry was, um, he sought, uh, connection. He sought obedience to the father's plan, and declares love as the greatest commandment. And where there's love, there must be forgiveness and humility is required for both. I'll say that again. Where there's love, which is the greatest commandment, where there's love, there must be forgiveness and humility is required for both. Uh, we're, we're call it the love we are and that, that brings us to our, and it, and it might sound corny or cliche. I, I recall in, in old movies said, love kills a demon. Well, absolutely love does kill the demon. Yeah. And uh, I'm, I'm not sure where. They got that line from, but it's, it's actually, I never heard it until you said it's, it's, it is biblically correct. Love does kill the demon. Uh, love does cover a multitude of sins. And, and if it, if, even if it does sound corny, cliche, come to come to the realization that it's objective, truth stands. Through, through the ages. So if we want agreement, we, we gotta embrace love. Mm-hmm. We gotta, we gotta, the word says what's the, the, the Shema and Deuteronomy and, and the great commandment and, and, um, and the gospels is, you know, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and, and strength. Mm-hmm. And, uh, and love your neighbor as yourself. Right. So love is it. And that's what he calls us to. Uh, and. He takes it even further in John's gospel when he tells his disciples a new commandment I give you. Mm-hmm. Because, because they, I mean, his disciples, they, they didn't get it either. Right. You know? Well, and they walked with him for three years and, and it is, this is in, in John 13, he says, A new commandment I give you to love one another. Even as I have loved you, you also must love one another by this. All men will know that you are my disciples if, and let's really just take that not not to change the words of our Christ savior, our Lord, but when they will know that you are his disciples when you love one another. That's John 13:34-35. Mm-hmm. It's one of my favorite. Favorite scriptures. Um, and yeah, it's, and that's really our anchor scripture for this episode. It is, it is. And it's, uh, it, it should, it should be our anchor scripture for life. Right? Right. Um, so, but we've learned that we must love intentionally, we got love takes. Intentionality. We must, there's so many people out there. I mean, look at society. Mm-hmm. There, there's a lot of intentional hate out there. Yeah. But man, how do you combat hate? Love with love. So we gotta be intentional about love. We gotta, we gotta shine through it. When, when, when the hair comes up on the back of your neck, that doesn't say, we don't get angry. That doesn't say that we're, we're emotionalness drones. It says that, that we live and love because he loved us. We love each other and love him, and love each other because he first loved us and we speak life. Yes, speak life. Uh. And light. And when we say that in, in, in Unbound, we speak life declarations. Mm-hmm. Uh, and that's biblical truth. It's not fake positivity. It's not the power of positivity, but it's speaking God's word because God's word is life. Jesus is life. He's the way, the truth and the life. And so we're not talking about fake positivity here, but gospel based truth, and we speak life over ourselves and each other. And when we intentionally decide for love. Life shifts and loves direction. I mean, it does look, look outside the look outside and, and man, I'm not telling you to watch the news, but flip it on, uh, and, and then please flip it right back off. Right? You know, because if you, if you just, the same as if you, if you speak hate, then hates what you get. But if we speak life and we decide for love, then, then, then our lives shift in love's direction. Isn't it time? Mm, isn't it? I think it's way past time, way past, uh, for love to shift the tide of our world back to him who called us to love God and love one another. We believe that it is time, and I got a question for you little early for questions, but how do you love those around you? How do you love those around you? It's important. Yes. How do you love Yes. Living, learning, growing, and and yielding to his truth. Yes. This is love. Yeah. And it leads us past pretending that everything is fine. Mm-hmm. Because I'm fine. Fine. No. You know what fine means? Feelings inside needing expressed. Yeah. E. And it leads us into mutual agreement that aligns and abides with the truth. Truth, the Capital T truth, as Allen says, I love that. Capital T truth, the capital T truth, the JC truth, who is Yeah, the capital T truth, the JC truth. Who is Jesus Christ. Yes. And even when circumstances look the opposite, we can stand on his absolute truth and believe that we will land well and when we decide to love as he, as he loves us. Yeah. Man. It's just, it's, it's a brilliant paradigm shift. It is an absolutely brilliant paradigm shift and, and paradigm. Paradigm shift is just a paradigm is just how we see the world. Mm-hmm. It's our perspective and, and I think maybe if, if we're honest with each other and we should be, we need, we need a paradigm shift. Yes. And love is, love is a great way to shift. It is. So if you truly wanna align or realign toward agreement, we're gonna give you five. Action items to do. Uh, we are, and we encourage you to start today. The first one is pray together consistently. Yeah. What do you gotta say about that lady? Well, first I'll say that we challenged you in, I think, the last episode to do a. Pray with your spouse, you know, pray seven days consistently, not just say, I'll pray for you later. Mm-hmm. As the saying goes, or you know, coming up to someone saying, how can I pray for you? And they tell you and you're like, and you go on your merry way. Mm-hmm. But pray together. Pray at that time. And you know, as the saying goes, if nothing changes and nothing changes. Right. Yeah. And we have to decide to set aside time to gain perspective on his plans. For your purpose. Yeah. I had to set aside time to gain perspective on his plan for my purpose. Right. And Allen For his purpose. Yeah. And our purpose together. And we had to decide with him if our plans were aligned with God's plans. Yeah. So what is his perspective on your family and on your business? And we're asking a lot of questions today, but. Our agreement starts with God's perspective. First agreement begins on our knees and listening with the eyes of our hearts as Ephesians one 18 says. Yeah, that's it. Number two, go for it. Speak the same language of faith. Mm-hmm. Are we believing what we're saying? Are we living faithfully? A lot of questions here, a lot of things to consider. Because we got understand this. Our words have power. Solomon's wisdom tells us in Proverbs 1821, that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit, death, and life are in the power of the tongue. Whew. Yeah. It's so true. Yeah. Simmer on that one. Yeah. Whether you're speaking life over yourself or over someone else, or whether you're speaking death over yourself or someone else. Right. It. Yeah. Your tongue is, has the power. We can, we can lift them up or we can tear'em down. Yeah. And as we walk under an in Christ authority, we, uh, we're called to, to lift them up. I, I love, I heard this in, in the recovery community a long time ago. The only, the only time you should be, uh, looking down on anyone is when you're reaching down to help'em up. Mm. That's so good. So, but back to the point, if you're praying. For abundance, but you're talking and lack, your beliefs are working against your prayers. Mm-hmm. Your words are working against your prayers and, and that's, that's not good. When we speak and we sow life, then, then we reap life. Likewise, if we're, if we're sowing and reap and sorrow and despair, well that's what you're gonna reap. So, so go to God with it and believe for it. I encourage, we encourage you to believe for it together. Yes. Yes. So number three is clarify the vision. Half of disagreements, maybe even more than half of disagreements happen because we're not even talking about the same thing. Whether it's a marriage goal or a ministry dream or a business plan, you have to write it down. You have to talk it through, and you have to get on the same page, not just with your business partner or your or your husband, or your child or spouse or your child, but you have to write it down and talk about it and make sure you're on the same page with the Lord and writing our thoughts down and our plans gets them. Out of I, you know, I, I have a lot of things bouncing around in my head and I actually said to Allen the other day, I'm like, I just feel like I have so many things bouncing around in my head. And he's like, did you write them down? Write'em down. Have you written them down? And I'm like, Ugh. Get'em outta there. I haven't, I haven't written them down. Yeah. But when I do write them down, it gets'em outta my head. And it makes it real. Yeah. It makes them real. And then I can present them. To the Lord Yeah. And come into agreement with him. Right. And build a plan what he wants. Plan, build the plan from that. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Yep. So the, uh, number four, our, our point for today is deal with offense quickly. Yeah. Alright. And he said, deal with a fence quickly. Yeah. Wow. I think the spirit of offense is working overtime in society today. I think so, but I gotta say something because I was just at an event, um, with a bunch of my women from Live Out Loud and something. We were talking about forgiveness and one of the girls had such a. Uh, she made the comment that forgiveness and offense are really two different things. Well, yeah, but, but it was like forgiveness or unforgiveness. Forgiveness. And No forgiveness. Forgiveness. Well, okay. Go ahead. Sorry. You can forgive. You can, like I can forgive you, right? Like forgive what you've done. But I can still be holding on and she has, but I can still be holding on to that offense. Mm-hmm. Even though I have forgiven. Yeah. That was just a wow moment for me because I was like,'cause I just think of offense and for, you know, an unforgiveness going, or forgiveness going together. If you forgive someone for what they've done, you've forgiven the offense. Right. But you can still be feeling offended and have forgiven someone. I, I, yeah. I, that's, thanks for bringing that up. Yeah. That's, it's, uh, my perspective on that and, and I've. Because I'm. I forgive, forgiven someone very close to me and there's, there's no offense there. Yeah. Uh, because I've taken it to the Lord. Mm-hmm. You know, so I think if we're, if we're forgiving in our heads, or if we're forgiving in our finite ability, then, then we, then there is a great tendency to hold onto that offense. Mm-hmm. Because it's, you know,'cause we want to, we're gonna try to bear that burden. We, we want to, we want that revenge. You know, pastor was talking about that today, but that's the revenge isn't ours to have. But I think not only do we need, but, but let me, let me finish. Yeah, go ahead. What I, I think what I think is, and as I've been cleared of that, that offense mm-hmm. I've given it to the Lord and he's given me perspective and which has created compassion against this. Mm-hmm. Or, or not against, but for this person so that I wouldn't have, uh, offense against this person. Right. Gave. So both. It's that re God that removes that Yeah. Spirit of offense. But you gave both to him. You gave, you gave the person to him and you gave the offense to him. But I think oftentimes we say, we say, Lord, we, we forgive this person. Mm-hmm. Or we say to that person, we forgive you. Mm-hmm. But we never actually address the offense. And give the offense to him. Yeah. And therefore, when we're still holding on to that offense, and we're still feeling offended when we get around that person, right. We can. There's something that is still kind of like e you know, kind of rubbing us the wrong way. Oh yeah. And it's because we haven't given, we gotta release it. Gotta, we haven't released that sense. We gotta release it. Right. Not just for forgiving the person, but forgiving the offense because that's a burden that we're, we're not built to carry. Right. We're not built to carry those burdens. Uh, Christ took those burdens on the cross. Yeah. Yeah. Uh,'cause he knew Right. You know, and wrap your heart around that. Yeah. But look, and, and I know someone asked us to do a whole episode on forgiveness and, and we are gonna do, uh, they'll gonna do a episode. They'll probably be a series on forgiveness coming up. Probably. There's probably, there's there's a lot to say on forgiveness. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, there's a, yeah, you, you know how it was right there, and then it's not, and then it's not so, so, we'll, we'll move on, but Yeah. But what, uh, what I know is that nothing. Nothing divides faster than silent resentment. That's rooted in pride, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Talk about, and that, that's the, that's the offense that we're talking about. Mm-hmm. Nothing divides faster than silent resentment. That's rooted in pride. Yeah. Again, we'll take it to Solomon's wisdom, uh, this time in Proverbs 1819, he's, and he says that a, a brother that's offended is, is harder to be with in a strong city. Uh, it's, it's, it's, and, and you gotta understand this in Solomon's time, and I'm a strong city, would be an, an, an opposing city to the, mm-hmm. To the city of Jerusalem, you know, or, or, or, or god's people, you know, it's harder. Uh, a, a brother offended is harder to be one with, harder to unite with than a strong city. People of opposing views. Yeah. Right. It's, uh, there's a lot of opposing views out there. Right. And everybody's right. And everybody says amen. Yeah. And, uh, anyway, uh, so, uh, but what do we do about that? So what do we do about that? You know, I think the Apostle Paul says, uh, be kind to one another. Mm-hmm. Tenderhearted. Yeah. Forgiving. Yeah. Forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven us. And that is a huge, that is an echoing. That is a ripple effect. Blemo, blemo, Blemo, blemo. So when something feels off, address it with the truth and. The truth in love because we, we can, and there, there's objective truth and that, and that is love, because God is love and the the objective truth is Christ. Mm-hmm. But if something feels off, if, if we're offended mm-hmm. We gotta address it. With the truth in love and move on. Yeah. Because unity doesn't mean perfection. It means humility. Right. It means that, and we'd encourage you be the first one to forgive. Yeah. He who forgives first wins. Not just the person, but the offense as well. And the offense as well. Yeah. Point. Yeah. And then our fifth point would be to surround yourself with aligned people. So you can't stay in agreement with heaven if everyone around you is speaking doubt. Right. I've been in those circles where people were just, you know, speaking the negative and, and you know, I see it on social media all the time and I'm like, I, I can't, I'm no longer in that place. Yeah. So I have to, I had to shut the door. Yeah. Um, sadly on some people seeing their posts because I'm like, I just can't be around that. Right. And but the, the, yeah, I get that. But, but Right. And then then the line of excuses. Yeah, exactly. Or just you and the offensive or the victim mentality, you know, the victim mentality speaking the victim mentality over yourself. And everything's always awful. And, you know, our core biblical reference in our unbound ministry is Romans 8:6. Where Paul says, for the mind set on flesh is death, but the mind set on spirit is life and peace. Life and peace. So find friends, find mentors and prayer partners who speak God's God's truth. And who remind you who you are in Christ. And I am so blessed, so blessed to have so many women around me who do just that. I love my circle of women who speak life into me. In fact, I And you speak life into them too. It's, it's a life circle. I do. But it's pretty cool. You know, I was, uh, just to give you a for instance, I was at, you know, back at that live out loud event last week, and. Like my mentor, you know, Brooke Thomas looked at me and she just knew. She knew that there was something wrong and she just started speaking life into me. Yeah. And I will tell you that all of that junk, yeah. It was, it was fatigue, it was tiredness. It was, you know, I needed rest and it was ex overexertion and, and just all these things, you know, we, I'd been going, going, going mm-hmm. Doing all good things like we've talked about before. Right. But my point is, she just started speaking life into me. Right. And started telling me who I was. Yeah. And we all need that. We all need God's truth. Who you are. Yes. Right. Who you are. What did I say? Who you was? Oh, well. Well, who I am she. Who I am last week. That's who you was last week, but who? You're But I'm still that person today. Right, exactly. But she started speaking. To me who I am. Yeah. Is that better? That is who I am. That's it. And reminding me, right. Who I am in Christ. Yeah. Big sh. And what he sees in me. Yeah. Big shout out to live out loud, Brooke. Yeah. Brooke Thomas. Brett Thomas. Yeah. Thanks guys. We love you. Yeah, absolutely. And we all need those people. So get in those circles, get those mentors, get those prayer partners who are speaking that life over you. Because it is so important and it is life changing. It is. It is, yeah. Is speaking Life's all about standing in agreement with who the Lord says we are. That's right. Who the Lord says we are. And it's important as we go through life, as we face challenges, that that agreement isn't about control. It's about connection. That's right. And our primary connection is with who. With our creator, father God. That's right. With Jesus and the Holy Spirit who, and they all enhance our connection with each other. If we're, if we are right with the Lord, then our, then we will be right with each other. Mm-hmm. If we decide to walk and follow. Christ Jesus our Lord. If we decide to deny ourselves, pick up our cross daily and follow him, our, our connections with each other will align. Mm-hmm. You know, I used to say, and, and I still do on occasion, that, uh, if, if I'm, if my life is, is set to, to, if I'm pleasing God with what I'm doing, then all the right people will be pleased as well. That's right. So. When your relationships and your words line up at God's truth, you don't have to force the love, the uh, the truth and love. You don't have to force it, it just flows. Mm-hmm. So Luke's gospel informs us that a good man out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth what is good. But likewise, the evil man actually in contrast, the evil man outta evil treasures brings forth what is evil for his mouth speaks. From what is filled and what, what his heart's filled with. Yeah. Yeah. That's, uh, Luke 6 45. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, heaven responds to Unity. So when we agree on Earth, God releases things in heaven that have been waiting on that alignment. And we've got some challenges for you this week. I mean, we've asked you a lot of questions right. And one of these days we'll have show notes and we'll put'em into show notes. We do have show notes, right? Do have show notes? Yes. All. Yes. Your producer. I do. The production does. He doesn't know. All right. But yes. Well, one of these days we'll put all these questions in the show notes. Alright? They're in the show notes, right? And you'll find them in the show down below. In the show notes. In the show notes. Check out the show notes. Yeah, along with the fact that he agrees with me. But anyhow, well, here's your challenge this week. Pick one area of your life where there's been disunity. Maybe it's your marriage, maybe it's in your business, or with a coworker or with an employee, or maybe it's in your own head. Yeah, maybe it's in your thoughts where you are not coming into unity with who God says you are. Right? So write it down. Write down and pick one area and write it down. That's it. And then what are you gonna do then? Then you gotta, then as, as, it's right there before in your quiet time.'cause y'all got quiet time, right? We're all making time for the Lord. You know, remember, if the enemy can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Joby. Uh, ask the Holy Spirit and your quiet time. Write it down. Ask the Holy Spirit, where am I out of alignment with you and yield to him. Sit and listen. Yeah, sit and listen and realign through prayer and truth. Then write down one. Speak life declaration to boldly declare faithfully over yourself and over others every day this week. Yeah. And, and if you're married or you're in ministry, set yourselves up for agreement success by intentionally meeting for prayerful planning and get on the same page like Allen said, y'all have quiet time with the Lord. Right, right. It's important to have quiet time with the Lord. It is, it is. And I, I want to go back to the, the speak. As you're writing down speaking life declarations, I wanna be clear that speaking life, those declarations are rooted in God's word. Yes, we wanna speak God's word over ourselves and each other. It is not the power of positivity, right? Nothing, not, not. We're not speaking poorly of positivity. Mm-hmm. But there's, there's worldly positivity. Uh, but the, what the spirit will give you as he's the spirit of truth who brings us all the truth. Mm-hmm. He'll, he'll give us scripture, he'll need us to do a scripture. Yeah. And so, so. When you're doing your Speak life declarations mm-hmm. Make sure that it's, it, it's it's God's words spoken over you. Yeah. And I'm and, and others because that's, that's the truth. That changes life. That's the truth that aligns us and, and, and draws us to agreement with Yeah. With God and each other. And, and I'm just gonna say. Once the Lord highlights, once the Holy Spirit highlights where you are out of agreement, if you are having problems coming up with the scripture, if you're having problems coming up with something to speak life, you know, contrary to you know, where you're out of alignment. Sure. You know, I'm gonna tell you. Take that and go to chat GPT quite honestly, because chat GPT is going to give you. A bunch of scriptures. Just, I'm gonna give you the prompt. You're gonna go to chat, GPT, and you're going to say, I am in a disagreement or in unalignment with this, right? Please give me scriptures, biblical scriptures, to combat or to come out of agreement with where I am out of alignment. Yeah. And. You'll be amazed at the scriptures and then start speaking those over yourselves. Print'em out, put'em on your refrigerator. We have, we have, uh, I am declarations on our refrigerator. Right. Write him on your mirror if you need to and, and see how he's And yeah. And chat, chat, you know, and I'm not discounting that, right. That, that's a great suggestion. Mm-hmm. But Chat's got no soul. No. Uh, Chat does, Chat has no Holy Spirit. Right. So I, whatever. Always remember this. Chat's a great tool. Mm-hmm. It's a great tool and it's, and, and. We have to use it wisely. Yes, absolutely. But it's, we have the soul. So as, as whatever chat spits out at you, you know. There it is on paper, it's written down. Holy Spirit, what are you speaking to me here? Yeah. What pops off the page?'cause I, I've had a list of scriptures and not all of'em. Where, I mean, the word of God is applicable at one point or another, but in my certain situation mm-hmm. There were, there were ver, there were verses that popped and when I went to that verse, you know, say. It, it would, I I always go back. Yeah. And if I go back, I say, well, that maybe it's not that, that verse pop because he wanted me to see what was before it or what's after it. Right. Or he wanted to put me back where he put me before I'll get to where I was, I'll get to where he was guiding me to. And it's already highlighted. Right. So I'm, I'm, uh, so I'm, what are you showing me here? Yeah. And you wanna play amo moment? Yeah. Oh yeah. So, so use chat wisely. Yes. Don't, it's not a crutch. No. It's a tool. Yes. And use it like a wrench and, uh, and then you put, you allow the spirit to enlighten your spirit with, uh, with those suggestions. Agreed. Yep. Yes. Okay. But it is a great tool. It is a great tool. But as we're winding down here, it's, I, it's important to understand that living in agreement doesn't always seem simple. Right. Right. And, and if you're, and if you're, it's most often not simple. It doesn't, it doesn't seem simple. Right. Uh, and if, and if you're challenged, uh, and I'll just use, uh, if you're challenged with standing in agreement with your spouse, then I would encourage you to, uh, pray about pride.'cause pride pride's a tremendous divider. Uh, and when you're challenged with that yield to his power, yeah. Always ask the spirit what he has to show you. And we got so much coming up on that. Yeah. Uh, uh, I love Paul's recognition that, that Jesus' power is made perfect in our weakness. That's a, a pre, that's a core reference in, in some, some recovery circles. Uh, that's a second Corinthians 12:9. Uh. Paul says that Jesus' power is made perfect and his weakness, and he goes on to say, so I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that the power of Christ Jesus will rest upon me. Mm-hmm. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anyone out there that doesn't want the power and authority of Christ Jesus to rest upon them? There's some reconciliation right there, folks, for sure. Right. So we. We're winding down here. We wanna recap. Mm-hmm. You know, it's the key points we talked about today. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna pop these off. Uh, God's kingdom, uh, moves when his people align. Abide and agree. Yes. And your words have powers speak Life. Live truth. Speak Life and live truth. Absolutely. Agreement with God and others releases breakthrough. You want some breakthrough? Take it to the Lord. Mm-hmm. And when we agree with him, we'll agree with others. Right. And that's where breakthrough ensues and unity doesn't require perfection. It requires humility. Humility. Again, coming back to humility versus pride. Yeah. Oh. Flesh versus the spirit. That's right. Aligning and abiding with God's truth. Who is Jesus Christ activates his authority in your life. Yes. So those are your five recaps. Hope you wrote them down. Not if you were driving, but. If you're driving, you can go back and listen to'em and write'em down later. Right on. Or you can go to the show notes, Hey, we got show notes. How about that? But you know, if this episode encouraged you, please share it with a friend or a spouse, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel. You never know whose breakthrough is waiting. On agreement. Right. To be quite honest. Yeah. It's important. We thank you for subscribing. Uh, we thank you for downloading and uh,'cause new episodes drop each week, every week on Wednesday. Let us know what, let us know what you think. Let us know what you'd like to hear us talk about here on Faithfully Invested. And remember that when we invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase. He does. We love you. God bless. Take care. God bless. Thanks for joining us on Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo, if today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or helped you see your calling more clearly, don't keep it to yourself. That's right. Share it with a friend. Leave a five star review and keep leaning into God's blueprint for your life, your leadership, and your legacy. So until next time, remember, when you invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase.