Agreement

By Dr. Elizabeth Hagan Asamoah

"We need to migrate from the old life or system of curses that we were born with into a life of blessings and prosperity; otherwise, we would always feel stuck in life and would never be able to live to our full potential or fulfill our destinies."

-Prophet Prince Adjemang

Many people find themsel

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Dec 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685569969

Dr. Elizabeth Hagan Asamoah

Dr. Elizabeth Hagan Asamoah, an award-winning author, a public health nutritionist/educator, and an entrepreneur, was born and bred in Ghana. She enjoys traveling to foreign/exotic countries and giving back to the community through volunteering. She has been a member of The Potter's House of Dallas since 2000 and has served with various ministries, including MegaCare. She is part of the public relations/in- formation department of the Covenant International Prayer line. She was a section liaison co-chair for the American Public Health Association-Student Assembly from 2017 to 2018.

Book preview

Dedication

I dedicate this book back to the Almighty God, who gave it to me to write in the first place in a dream. I initially thought that I was just having a good dream for once and never knew it was another book You are giving me the opportunity to type for You, as I always jokingly say. Thank you so much, Lord Jesus, for Your trust and confidence in me to upload into me all these pieces of information and for allowing me to download them into a book format. I have been blessed and learned a lot through the process, and I pray that others will also have the same experience as they read it. I am grateful that You empowered me to be still (the only time I am able to master the art of being still, patience) so that You can be as You kept, uploading all the information into me; I am forever grateful.

I also dedicate it to my husband, Deacon Enoch Asamoah, and my daughter, Lady Babette Asamoah, for your continuous love, support, and understanding; and really appreciate you all for how you always make room for me and give me the space to be able to do what I need to do. And so it goes to the entire Hagan Family (my mom, siblings, and their families) and my God-sister, Ms. Mary Amaning Kwarteng, for all the love, care, and support you all keep showering on me. Love you all loads.

Acknowledgment

I also will like to express my sincere appreciation/gratitude to all my spiritual fathers, mentors, and leaders who have availed themselves for God to use them to groom me to become who I am now and have allowed me to tap into their spiritual wisdom over the years. Bishop T.D. Jakes, my home Pastor for almost twenty-one years, Bishop Dr. Kofi Adonteng Boateng (Divine Prayer Ministry, Virginia, US), Prophet Prince Kwabena Adjemang (a.k.a Papa Nii, Covenant Prayer Ministry), Prophets Samuel Ofori Boakye and Richard Adu Gyamfi (FOG Dallas and Ghana), Apostle Benjamin Owusu Poku (IPDCC, Dallas, Texas), Pastor Martinson Sarfo (ICGC, Dallas, Texas), Reverend Harold Wilson (Ghana), Reverend John Oscar Sabogu (Tennessee, US) and many many more. I am forever indebted to you all, and may your fires never be quenched; keep the fire burning.

Foreword

Every good and thoughtful Christian’s life doesn’t just stay in the church. They seek to do more, among others, researching the Bible to get answers relating to their lives or community at large. Because knowledge, they say, is power. Undoubtedly, Dr. Elizabeth Hagan Asamoah has been such a person throughout the number of years that I have known her.

This book, titled Agreement, couldn’t have had a better author than Dr. Elizabeth Hagan Asamoah. Coupled with a lot of research done by her, this work presents both life experiences and quality information that many would benefit from, and thus, it is with special joy I welcome this book because it will make a significant contribution to the lives of many, and I heartily recommend it.

I pray it receives widespread acceptance and use.

—Prophet Samuel Ofori Boakye

Factory of God Church

USA/Ghana

Chapter One

In Ministry

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.¹

For the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives

As the Book of Acts highlighted, the Holy Spirit did not come, or the apostles did not receive the Holy Spirit till they were together in a room in one accord (in agreement, at peace, common ground, understanding) with each other. The Holy Spirit operates in an environment of peace, unity, and harmony; so, where there is disharmony and we do not see eye to eye with each other, it is difficult for the Holy Spirit to flow and minister easily. In Matthew 18:19–20, Jesus said,

Again I say to you, that if two believers on earth agree [that is, are of one mind, in harmony] about anything that they ask [within the will of God], it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name [meeting together as My followers], I am there among them.²

I do not know why or what was going on that the Holy Spirit needed to wait for the apostles to be in one accord before manifestation, but my suspicion is maybe the apostles initially were not working in harmony; they were not in agreement or common ground with each other. There might possibly be some blame game going on for who might have contributed to Jesus’ betrayal, who hanged around after, and even who should take the leadership role, etc. This may be the case in several areas of the ministry, which may include assigning of roles and responsibilities, which should be the leader, who should handle which role, etc. can in itself be a whole chaotic experience for them considering the kind of people who made up the group. For example, the sons of Zebedee (Mark 10:35–45; Matthew 20:20), John and his brother, were a bit selfish and power-drunk, remembering how they and their mother approached Jesus, trying to manipulate Him to allow them to sit next to Him, one on each of His hand sides, in heaven, ignoring or not being considerate about the other ten apostles if any of them were also interested in sitting next to Jesus. This caused the other apostles to show anger and resentment towards them. So even with Jesus with them, if something of that sort can happen, imagine what else might have been going on in His absence. Even following Jesus’ instructions to stay in Jerusalem till they receive the Holy Spirit by itself can create a whole lot of confusion and disagreement among the apostles, with doubting Thomas still in the group. After all, at that time, the Holy Spirit was not a reality to them, so the whole concept of staying put in one place for something they had never seen or experienced before to happen would definitely not sit well with some of them. Some might have thought it not to be a realistic request and would have been putting pressure on the others for them to leave; some of them might have their own personal agendas and itineraries they wanted to go with, so to get eleven or more men of different backgrounds to be on the same ground, see eye to eye, agree with each other, definitely was not going to be that easy and simple, so the Holy Spirit might have patiently waited till when there were altogether, in one accord, also understanding themselves and in agreement with each other before He finally revealed Himself to them. The Spirit flows when there is unity (Psalm 133); where there is no unity, the power of God cannot operate effectively; where there is love, oneness, the Word of God, waiting, which involves fasting and praying, it draws the presence of God amidst believers, according to Reverend John Oscar.

The apostles, especially the twelve disciples in agreement with Jesus, left their professions to enter into ministry with Him. In Matthew 4, it is written that when Jesus met the four brothers, Andrew and Simon Peter, and James and John, they were all fishermen. But they agreed or concurred with Jesus that with their expertise in fishing, they had the necessary skills in fishing (recruiting) for men, so they left their jobs as fishermen to follow Jesus and ended up working with Him during His ministry days on earth. They became some of His trusted friends within His inner circle and ended up as some of His effective apostles through whom some of the most important Books in the New Testament were written. It is through them that the Holy Spirit made His introduction into the world, and the early or first church was established. Even, in a non-technology era, with the faith they had in Jesus, they were able to preach to thousands without any of the technology we enjoy now and did numerous miracles, including healing and raising dead people back to life. I will say they are even the initiators of the mega-churches concept. Jesus also met Matthew, the tax collector, and invited him to be his follower. Matthew, acting on faith and in agreement with Jesus, left his lucrative profession and went with Jesus to be one of His disciples. In Matthew 9 verse 9, Jesus told him, ‘Follow Me [as My disciple, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk].’ And Matthew got up and followed Him.³

For a ministry to progress successfully, agreement plays a major role. It is imperative for the ministry members to be in one accord and agree with the visions of the leader for the ministry to grow. If members do not support the ideas and visions of the leader, the growth of the ministry can be jeopardized. Many people join or go into ministries with their own personal agendas or visions, so where the leaders’ visions do not complement theirs or serve their personal goals or purpose, they find themselves frustrated, disappointed, unhappy, unfulfilled always in disagreement with the leader; some end up going against the leader or leaving. The main reason many keep moving from one ministry to the other and also that is why we have so many small, five or ten-membership churches and ministries spread all over.

When members in a ministry do not agree or support each other on things that need to be done for the ministry, thus if they do not act in one accord, it can easily lead to the breakdown of the ministry. A typical example is when Paul and Barnabas disagreed on whom to include in their mission trip in Acts 15:

Now Barnabas wanted to take [his cousin] John, who was called Mark, along with them. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take along with them the one who had quit and deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work. And it became such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another.⁴

I have always wondered why Judas betrayed Jesus because it was not about money as I think Jesus was not that poor, considering some of the people who were following Him and also the caliber of some of the people He performed peculiar miracles for, like Lazarus, the centurion, Jairius, the official from the local synagogue in Mark 5, whose daughter Jesus raised from the dead. I do not think all these people just used Jesus to get their miracles without giving back or supporting Him in any way. They would definitely sow into His ministry. And what about all the gold, frankincense, etc., given to Jesus as a baby? Jesus had to have something to His Name to be able to get all these people to leave their lucrative professions to follow Him because at the time He called most of His disciples; it was not really confirmed He was the Messiah, so definitely money was not the magnet that drew them to Him. And what about Jesus, who can cause money to fall out of the fish’s mouth so that He can pay His taxes in Matthew 17:24–27? Thus, He is capable of commanding money from all sources into His coffers. And yes, this is the same Jesus who fed 5,000 men, not counting even women and children, with only five loaves of bread and two fishes with twelve baskets of leftovers. Thus, He was capable of doubling or tripling whatever money was in His accounts if money was the issue that could have prevented Judas from going behind His back to conspire against Him with His enemies to the point of killing Him. I do not think Judas was that unhappy with Jesus. And we should also not lose sight of the fact that giving offerings was a natural aspect or norm of the Jewish religious culture, so obviously, all these mass crowds that used to follow Jesus or were part of His ministry would be giving offerings occasionally to keep the ministry going. These are the descendants of the people in Exodus 36 who were said to continue to bring him (Moses) freewill (voluntary) offerings every morning till the skilled men who were doing all the work on the sanctuary came, and they said to Moses, The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the Lord commanded us to do⁵ that Moses had to issue another command for them to stop giving any more offerings. They believed in the ministry of giving and sowing, so certainly, the congregation of Jesus’ ministry would have been given some form of offerings to keep the ministry running, which Judas would have been very aware