The Power of Togetherness

Years ago, we began to tithe, giving ten percent of our income to the church we attended, but we did not see God working in our finances. We started to do as Jesus instructed in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.” Although we started to pay off some debt, we weren’t seeing the “running over” portion of this promise in our lives.

For years we had also meditated on another scripture concerning our finances. “For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:7b-9), and further in verse 11, “You will be made rich in EVERY way so that you can be generous on every occasion.” It sounded to us like this promise included our finances!

Difficult times and years of financial hardship had taught us to trust God, to quit relying on debt, to give God our hearts and to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (or as Gary says, “His right way of doing things”). We had cut up our credit cards, destroying the false foundation that we had learned to trust. We wanted so badly to help others in need and to be a blessing. During this time, we checked our motives for desiring to prosper in our finances. We had passed many tests in giving when we felt God’s Spirit instructing us to do so. Oftentimes, we had given our last dollar to be a blessing to others. But there seemed to be something we were missing. God had promised to bless our lives, and that included our finances. “What is going on?” we asked ourselves.

Then we discovered the missing ingredient! Living under financial pressure had also created extra pressure on our marriage. Sometimes we had blamed each other. However, one day God dealt with us both so strongly about the power of two agreeing on His Word. If any two shall agree on earth, it will be done by our Father in Heaven. We began to recognize that every time we were close to a victory or success in our finances, pressure would come against us, and we would find ourselves in conflict, sometimes over the pettiest issues. Then we would become divided. It seemed to be a well-planned attack of the enemy. Every time we purposely sought to advance in life, a battle would ensue that would end in a disagreement with each other.

Soon, we got wise to this warfare and the strife it brought. We saw the scripture that said, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work” (James 3:16). Other scriptures like, “Give no place to the devil” and “Satan roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, resist him steadfast in the faith” confirmed our sense that God was instructing us about our part to play. We had to stand against the warfare that kept causing us to fall short of God’s promises.

Whenever we would get aggravated with each other, we would stop before we spoke any words that were unkind or harsh to one another. We actually would head off any strife at the onset, realizing our adversary was trying to steal our blessings by getting us to open the door to his thievery. We began to not only recognize agitations as an attempt of the enemy, but we began to laugh at them. Immediately, we would stop the disagreement, look at each other, and say, “I’d rather prosper and be in health.” It wasn’t that we never disagreed, but we decided it was more important to agree on God’s Word and protect the blessings He wanted for our lives than it was to “win” the disagreement. We gave up our right to disagree, and instead we stepped into our kingdom rights to be and receive God’s promises. We learned that our faith worked by love!  

We discovered that it was not enough to believe God’s promises, and act on them. We had to also keep the door shut to our adversary in order to keep him from stealing what God had given to us. These were OUR precious promises, but we had to learn the power of two standing in unity with God and His Word. Then we began to see the realization the precious promises.

How many people blame God when things do not work out? Most do. But how many times do we actually do this to ourselves? In reality, it was Gary and Drenda Keesee who had gotten drawn off into conflict by allowing strife to open the door of confusion and let every evil work walk right into our lives. When we shut the door, we began to see dramatic breakthroughs in our finances. In two and a half years, we paid off all of our debt; and believe me, it was a mountain of debt. Additionally, we saved enough to be generous on every occasion, and we were also able to pay cash for a large piece of property, a dream we had for many years.

What are you doing with the power God has given you to succeed? Are you impacting the world for Christ by your success in your finances, home, and marriage? You can! As Gary and I began to search the scriptures for God’s principles for our life and finances, we discovered the importance of being unified in our relationship. We discovered that agreement is essential concerning faith toward God and His promises.

For more about this principle and others, I recommend you get Gary’s CD series, “Set for Success.” Visit our online store for this and other resources.

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