To accomplish anything of major consequence people must be in one accord, or in other words, see eye to eye, and be in unity. Acts 2:1-4 is a wonderful example of God's people exhibiting this unity and the fruit of what it can produce.

To successfully overcome the enemy, there can be no division or contention in your heart towards yourself, God, or His people. You cannot have unity when you are at odds with yourself for instance, as you will not trust your status with God. To be at odds with God will cause you to waver. You will not be able to stand firm on the fact that God loves you and wants the best for you. You will be unsure. So when the winds of adversity blow unfair or almost unbearable situation, its easier for you to blame God for not fixing it, who you now see as uncaring, than to blame yourself for letting the enemy in through doubt and unbelief.

Jesus actually "fixed it" 2,000 years ago on the cross. He died for our sins and His coming back to life defeated the Devil's attempt to kill Him. His resurrection was more powerful than death, hell and the grave. Now He has given us the authority over the power of the enemy.

Now let us look at the number that is translated as authority in the Strongs. It is 1849.

In other words. He gave us all the above definitions over the power of the enemy. He also gave us power to get wealth and the stripes that He endured on our behalf were for our infirmities. Let us look at these promises in scripture.

So what is wrong? Why are we not experiencing victory? Did God change His mind? Or maybe He made promises that He didn't mean to keep. Perhaps He lied to mankind and never meant to do any of it in the first place. Or, I know, maybe God doesn't even really like us anymore. Have you ever had such thoughts? Well cheer up. They probably were not your thoughts at all. Most probably you were hearing the voice of the enemy. Satan would love to have you feel inferior so you think you are not worthy of God's love, provision, or protection. All he has to do to accomplish this is to craftily wait for an opening to send in a spirit of rejection and maybe a few spirits of oppression and depression, and soon you are thinking exactly as he wants you to. If he slips in a spirit of anger or two, maybe a few more cracks will appear and you can help him involve a couple more people, and division runs rampant. If unity is the key to victory, you and those you influenced just really blew it! The power and authority God gave to accomplish great exploits is by now so short-circuited everything remains dead as a doornail, and life is powerless. Not God's fault! Here is Paul's plan for unity in 1 Corinthians 1:10.

The major player in this power loss is Satan, the lawless one, Antichrist. Whichever name you wish to use, he is the culprit! He has been causing division for years among the people of the Lord. and will continue to do so. He is quite aware if he discontinued, God's people would immediately come into power and defeat him. It is his most prominent quest therefore to stir contention in God's family.

He is the most successful in causing contention and division through the new ones. They enter the kingdom so full of the world's knowledge and reasoning. In their minds, they are wiser than the leadership, and overflowing with opinions on how the ministry and all related activities should be handled. They try to solve problems they have not been asked to solve and counsel others while they themselves are still very much in need of ministry and maturity. In other words, they are a very easy target for Satan to stir up trouble through. But you know what, these spiritually young ones are not the real problem. It is the attitude of the covenant or core people and their reactions to them that is the real issue. We are so intent on seeing the newborn's flaws that we miss our own immature actions in response to their shenanigans. God will look after the babies. He will correct them, change them and see to it that they are fed the correct food to grow and mature. They will be mad at God and His people one moment, and love them the next. They will have their ups and downs, but He expects more from the older ones. To whom much has been given, much is required and truly they are the ones held the most responsible to keep the peace and unity. This does not mean leadership should allow the spirit of lawlessness to operate against them and be spiritual doormats for the immature to walk on. They do not have to accept worldly talk or lawless actions to try to be on their level or be their buddies. To the contrary, God will firmly rebuke the new ones through His leadership, but He expects His counselors to do so without attitude or lasting anger. Notice I said lasting. God allows for anger, but we must not sin.

Unity should always be restored quickly, but again, never at the cost of being pulled into their worldliness.

Side Note: One of the most horrendous times in the life of God's people was when the lawless Greek Hellenists took over Jerusalem and taught Israel their lifestyles and almost accomplished assimilating them into their culture. They may have succeeded had it not been for a strong and loyal priest named Mattathias and his five sons. They literally ran the Greek army out of Jerusalem. Incidentally, the name Mattathias means unity, 3161 in the Strongs. Of course, as we have discussed many times in other lectures, this whole scenario with the Maccabees is symbolic of Shimini Atzeret. Those that finally make this special eighth day feast will be united ones, separate from the world. but joined together and alike. God had to be with Mattathias and his little army for them to achieve this awesome victory as evidenced by the eight days of miracle oil depicting God's approval. They were given the light, authority and power to make the eighth day because of their unity and separation from the systems of man and their lawless people.

As stated before lack of unity and personal involvement with the world's people has always been Israel's main reason for defeat.

God has always had rules concerning separation that if followed, would have caused Israel, then and now, to function as one body. The power of God flows through each individual and when united with others it can accomplish great exploits, but that power is short-circuited through cracks of division or sin, bringing us failure and defeat. In other words, to be connected with the world's people automatically separates us from the family of God, leaving us wide open to the attack of the enemy. Now, whatever spirits are operating through them, have every right to us, because of our disobedience.

Think on this, the Lord said, "if you love Me you will keep My Commandments." He also said, "Love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself." And what about I John 4:21?

So if we were all obedient to the laws on our hearts, and obeyed His commandments, and we truly loved God and all Israel, the power of God would flow full force. Nothing could stop us! This is what is meant by the scripture, "Love conquers all". Unity results in perfect love, and perfect love in perfect power. The opposite is equally true. Division results in hatred and hatred in power failure! When the power is on there is light, and light quickly dispels darkness. If we are united in the love of God we are children of the light, and darkness cannot overtake us, or the enemy cannot cover us. Have you noticed that when people are walking badly, or are in opposition with God, they look darker in their face? This is because they have experienced a loss of power to resist the enemy, and you can actually observe the physical darkness of the enemy creeping over them. Soon their commitment falters and they slide backwards. Remember how Moses' face shone so brightly after talking to God that he had to veil his face so the people could look at him?

This is what touching God's presence can do if there is no short-circuit. Here is some food for thought. Moses made contact with God's presence with the law or commandments written on stone in his hands and the power of God flowed in mighty acts for Israel. This birthed Judaism. Look then in the New Testament what happened when Israel as a body touched God's presence with the law of God on their hearts? Was that not exactly what happened at the feast of Pentecost in Acts? Yes it was, and this time Christianity was born. Now consider this, what if we today could actually become the law over sin or become the Torah. As the body of Christ unifies and we touch the presence of God, would that not be the ultimate power? Would that not be the fulfillment of Simchat Torah, the very last feast we are to experience? Could it be the church triumphant or the eternal church would be birthed? Would the eighth day manifest and the perfected children of God appear that are to restore all of creation? It's a real promise and therefore a real possibility as we see in Romans 8:19.

Could harmony be achieved through our unity between heaven and earth and the result be as in the beginning when God said, ‘it is good"? If we feel this may be the case, then we need to bring all this into being and figure out how do our part.

First of all we must speak the same language. Do we? And do we see eye to eye with each other and God? In other words, do we speak only truth and see the world through God's eyes?

To serve Him in one accord we must agree on how we as a body or a family are to serve Him. We must also have the big picture of the same overall vision of the age to come or the church triumphant to be in one accord. Let's be honest. do we really have either vision? Can we dare to even believe God's promises? Can we truly imagine being the very people that walk out of time? Is it a real possibility to you or is it like a child's tale? Can you speak of these things with conviction?

If these things are not real to you, read the Word, concentrate on the victorious promises God has made to His people. All creation depends on some generation understanding them and then functioning in such a way that they begin to manifest into being. The fact that all has not come about as yet is not the Lord's fault, it is ours. We allow the enemy to steal our dreams and promises by our disobedience. In the second half of this lecture we will discuss just how mankind defeats himself, disappoints God and leaves the rest of creation hanging in the balance.