The Master Chef

"I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20, NLT)

One of my BFFs is the furtherest thing from being a master chef...ever.
She and I happily share that commonality. 

Mucho Mahalos Bitstrips!

She has no interest in being a cook, let alone a master chef. I can pray over her, declare to her, and proclaim to the world that she is a master chef. However, unless she gets into agreement with me about becoming a master chef, she will never become a master chef.

I have faith to move mountains; however, my faith and my words won’t necessarily yield a harvest in her life without her agreement.

That said, there are many things she and I come into agreement about and we decree those things and they are established. (Hosea 10:12) 

Two are better than one! (Ecc. 4:9-12) My words coupled with her words (agreement) are absolutely unstoppable! God is always faithful! (1 Corinthians 1:9)

"I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20, NLT) 

Never, ever quit! (Galatians 6:9)

Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for every reader right now to gain a new level of tenacity in You! Help us Lord, see through Your eyes past the temporal into the eternal in the name of Jesus! Show us Your Heavenly perspective! We determine to have a spirit and attitude of I will never, ever quit! We determine to have a spirit and attitude of, "God said it in His Word! I believe everything He said! I never waver at His promises! He has a good plan for my life! I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! God loves me...unconditionally, no matter what!" Thank You Lord for your precious promises! 

He Is...and He is a Rewarder

From time to time we invite a guest to contribute a blog post to Key Tov Blog. Our really great friends, John and Hannah (We've used their first names only to protect their privacy.), have blessed us with an amazing testimony of how God works things together for our good! We have personally watched John and Hannah consistently operate with a spirit of excellences, love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness in all areas of their lives. They truly have a servant's heart! Their testimony is one that confirms that God is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, enjoy!

So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. (Galatians 6:9, NLT)

After struggling, for years to pay our mortgage, we fell behind...way behind. Modifying was out of the question because we had already modified once. Hope was lost and we finally asked the bank to “take it back”, hoping for a deed in lieu, rather than face foreclosure. Growing up in a somewhat conservative working class home, foreclosure = failure! You worked hard, paid all your bills, you always had enough. I didn’t want to fail. Like a dark cloud hovering over us, condemnation found a way in. I internalize everything, so it was always my fault…the economy shouldn't have affected me like everyone else, because I had it all together, I always did.

Preparing for the worse, we looked for rentals on craigslist and the newspaper. We believed that God had something better down the road, and this wasn’t really a tragedy but a blessing. After all, He was blessing our business in a way we couldn’t have predicted. Losing this home would mean there was something better on the way. While at peace, I still felt a loss…a failure, careless, worthless.

One day as my husband and I talked, we began to feel a fire about our home. My husband said, "God didn’t put this house in our hands, to let it be snatched away." We prayed and agreed that we would press on with yet, another modification application. We asked friends to pray with us.

Every week I had an appointment with a “relationship manager” from the bank who would begin the conversation with “Good morning, this is Ms. So and So from the bank. I have to inform you, we are a debt collector and we will use the information you give us, to collect that debt. With that being said, are you ready to begin our call?" 

Whew…yes, I was ready, because God was with me!

Week after week, they needed more information, or updated information. How do you keep going when you feel strung along and hopeless. “God you are bigger than this and we have found a refuge in Your loving arms, thank You for the strength to press on, thank You for blessing us with health and a business we love, thank You for giving us the money to pay Verizon so we could be on this call today! We trust You and thank You for being our fortress, in Jesus’ name…AMEN”!

Feeling like we did all we could, I took a deep breath and answered that final call a few weeks ago. The relationship manager said, "Congratulations, we were able to modify your mortgage, but there are some terms." (As we had guessed, pay on time for 3 months...etc. etc. etc.) "Your mortgage balance was $591,800, but your new balance is $199,000!!! We have forgiven $392,800 of your principal balance!!!

Writing this, I am crying my eyes out. What a great God we serve! We would have been ecstatic at another shot at this, but this goes to prove our God's economy is definitely better than ours and there is POWER in agreement!

Mahalo Nui Loa John and Hannah for sharing this powerful testimony of God's goodness! Father, we pray for every reader right now! Since You did this for John and Hannah, You will do this for every reader! Since You be for us, who can be against us! Thank You for being no respecter of persons! Thank You for being and for being a rewarder of those who diligently seek You! Thank You for continuing to make our paths straight and smooth! Thank You for ordering our steps and giving us heart desires and then, giving us what our heart desires! Thank You for placing prayer warriors in our lives who stay in prayer covenant with us all the way from heart's desire to manifestation, availing much! All the glory, honor, and power to You Father!

James 5:16

Acts 10:34

Psalm 37:23

Psalm 37:4

Matthew 18:19

James 5:16