For us to be in one accord means that there’s harmony in our inner being, in our mind and will; to be in one accord is to be in harmony, having the same mind and the same will with the same purpose around and within our soul and heart.
Being in one accord involves not mainly our spirit but our soul, for oneness is in our spirit and one accord is related to our soul.
When we exercise our spirit, we are one, for we have the oneness of the Spirit; when we live in our soul, however, when we do this and that, we may not be one, for our souls are very different.
We could say that the oneness is the shell of the nut while the one accord is the kernel within the nut; we need to get to the kerne so that we have the essence and reality of the oneness being practiced among us.
Similarly, oneness can be likened to the human body, while one accord can be likened to the heart.
We all have the oneness, but we may have a sickness of the heart, that is, we lack the one accord.
Our spiritual sickness is like a sickness in the heart within the body; our sickness is the lack of the adequate one accord. Oh, Lord Jesus!
The Lord has brought us in His recovery to practice the church life according to the divine revelation in His word, and He has shown us the God-ordained way to meet and to serve.
But do we live the church life in one accord? Do we have much and thorough prayer with those in our vital group so that we may blended together and have one accord?
Or do we have a long history in the back of our mind with lots of offenses and things we hold against others?
As long as there are people in the church life, offenses will come, people will be different from us, and we may not find someone who is exactly like us or according to our preference.
What do we do then? Do we go to the cross to be crucified and do everything through the cross and by the Spirit, or do we just go through the motions in the church life, having an outward practice of the church life without the one accord? Oh, Lord.
May the Lord cause His light to shine on us and recover the one accord among us so that He may have a way to answer our prayer, pour out His blessing, and build up the church as the Body of Christ among us and with us!
May we accept the Lord’s diagnosis of our sickness in the heart and may we give ourselves to Him to be healed and recovered to the one accord for Him to pour out His blessing on us.
May we be brought back to the genuine one accord, the harmony in our inner being, so that our mind, emotion, and will may be harmonized and among us in the church life there would be harmony.
Having One Accord by having Harmony in our Inner Being, in our Mind and Will, and having the Same Mind and Heart
In Matt. 18:19 the Lord said that, if two of us are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from the Father who is in the heavens.
This matter of being in harmony is very important and it is related to being on one accord. The one accord refers to the harmony in our inner being, in our mind and will (see Acts 1:14).
In this verse, the Greek word for “one accord” is homothumadon; homo means “same” and thumos means “mind, will, purpose, soul, heart”.
This word refers to the harmony in our being, a harmony of inward feeling in one’s entire being.
One accord refers to the harmony in our being, in our mind and our will; it is not just in our spirit but in our soul.
Whenever we turn to our spirit, we are one in spirit; oneness is in our spirit, and we simply need to turn to the spirit and live in spirit, and we are one.
However, what about our mind, our emotion, and our will? There are differences because of the diverse opinions in our mind, our different judgments, our preferences.
In the church life, our mind is all over the place, and no two minds think alike; we are diverse and different.
This is where the problems come in many times in the church life.
It is important to realize that, for us to have the one accord, we need to be in the same mind and the same will, having the same purpose around and within our soul and heart; our entire being is involved in having the one accord.
The first thing is our mind, and then our will and purpose; there must be harmony in our inward being, we need to be harmonized in our inner feeling about something.
This is not just oneness in an outward way; one accord is not just our singing that we are one but even more, it is having harmony in our inner being.
We need to practice and apply the oneness which we have in our spirit so that we may have harmony in our inner being; we need to be harmonized in our inner being.
Our need is to be in the same mind and the same will with the same purpose around and within our soul and heart; our entire inner being needs to be brought into harmony so that we may be in one accord.
There has to be first the true oneness of our entire being and with one another, even in our inward feeling.
We may declare that we are one and we may think we are one, but when we have the one accord, there is a knowable and palpable oneness, for everyone will sense that oneness is there.
In our practice of oneness, we all need to be brought to this kind of condition of having harmony in our inner being so that we may be in the same mind and same will, having the same purpose in our soul.
This is possible, but it requires our exercise and cooperation, and it also requires the work of the cross.
On one hand, we need to exercise our spirit and be joined to the Spirit, and on the other hand, we need to allow the cross to terminate us with our opinions, desires, and purposes, and bring our whole inner being in harmony, tuning us in the same mind and will with the Lord and with the saints.
Then, we will have the same goal of the building up of the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, we open our whole being to You: may there be harmony in our inner being, in our mind and our will, and may we be attuned in the same mind and purpose with the saints to have the one accord. Amen, Lord, we want to practice and apply the oneness in our spirit to our mind until we have the harmony of inward feeling. May we all be in the same mind and the same will with the same purpose around and within our soul and heart. May our whole being be harmonized and attuned in the same mind and will with the Lord and with the saints. Bring us all into the one accord in our inner being and with the saints in the church life so that You may have a way to bless us and carry out what is in Your heart for us and among us.
The One Accord, the Harmony of Inward Feeling among the Believers, is like a Harmonious Melody and Symphony to God
In Matt. 18:19 the Greek word for harmony or one accord is “sumphoneo”; it refers to being in harmony or accord, referring to the harmonious sound of musical instruments or voices.
There’s nothing more beautiful to hear than a harmonious symphony, where each instrument plays its part and together they offer a harmonious melody.
When the Lord Jesus said that, two of you are in harmony on earth, He referred to our being in one accord.
An application of this was the disciples praying for ten days with one accord, and the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit as power upon them.
If we look at our situation, we may not be in one accord with our own spouse, much less with the saints in the church life.
But the Lord promises us that, as long as we are in harmony with the saints concerning a certain matter, the Lord will do it for us; the requirement is that at least two on earth are in harmony.
Two of us need to speak from the same musical score, sing from the same music sheet, be under the same director, and be the same in every way – the same mind, the same will, and same feeling.
The Lord’s feeling must work its way into our feeling so that His feeling becomes our feeling.
We need to give the Lord the ground to spread in our soul, make His home in our heart, and renew our mind and control our will.
To be in harmony or accord refers to the harmonious sound of musical instruments or voices.
We may be very spiritual and knowledgeable, playing a good “solo” in the church life, but the Lord wants to hear an entire orchestra playing a wonderful symphony.
He wants for there to be harmony in our inner being and that there be harmony of inward feeling among the believers in the church life.
This is what the early disciples practiced; after the Lord finished His earthly ministry and became a life-giving Spirit, He breathed into them as the Spirit and stayed with them for forty days to train them to experience and know His invisible presence, and then He ascended to the heavens.
The disciples then prayed for ten days, every day, and the key of their prayer was the one accord (Acts 1:14).
There was the harmony of inward feeling among them, and their prayer in one accord was like a harmonious melody to the Lord who, on the day of Pentecost, poured Himself out as the Holy Spirit upon them to clothe them as their power.
They prayed together in one mind, in the same mind; they had the same will with the same purpose around and within the soul and their heart.
Their entire being was involved and was in one accord.
For us to be in one accord means that our entire being is one – there’s the harmony in our inner being, and there’s the harmony of inner feeling among the believers, like a harmonious melody to God.
When we have the one accord, we become like a melody to God; we become a poem not merely in writing but in sound, in voice, in melody.
This will cause Him to pour out His blessing and work out what He wants to do among us.
When the early disciples were in one accord in prayer, even though Peter was the one who spoke, the disciples stood with him, and his speaking was their speaking.
When we are in the prayer meeting and we pray in one accord, in a sense it doesn’t even matter who prays, for we pray in one accord, and there is only one prayer, which is like a symphony to God, causing Him to be happy and satisfied, and He will do what He wants to do among us.
At the end of such a prayer meeting, no one’s prayer is greater or more important, for there was just one prayer, one intercession that ascended to God, and He will answer it.
But if we lack one accord, even though we may pray much, seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and acquire a lot of knowledge from the Bible, we will not see the blessing.
These three items – prayer, the Spirit, and the Word – have one key, the one accord; when we have them all, we get the Lord’s blessing.
And when we have the one accord, we need to maintain it; we need to maintain the harmony of inward feeling among the believers, which is like a harmonious melody before God so that He would pour out His blessing.
Based on what we see in Acts, up to ch. 15 the saints were in one accord, but after that, the one accord is no longer mentioned; rather, at the end of ch. 15 we see a dissenting between Paul and Barnabas. Oh, Lord!
May we treasure the one accord to such an extent that we put everything aside to have, keep, and maintain the one accord, the harmony of inward feeling among the believers in the church life!
Lord Jesus, work in us and among us so that we may be one and have the one accord. May there be the harmony of our inner being and the harmony of inward feeling among us, the believers in Christ, like a harmonious melody to God. Amen, Lord, we allow You to operate in us and apply the cross to our opinions, feelings, and purposes, so that we may be harmonized inwardly and with all the saints. Gain the harmonious sound of the one accord in the church life so that You may have a way to pour out Your blessing. Save us from doing anything apart from the one accord. Save us from not having the harmony of inward feeling among the saints; may we pay the price to have the one accord and pray with one accord! Oh Lord, recover the one accord among us in the church life today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1986, vol. 1, “Elders’ Training, Book 7: One Accord for the Lord’s Move,” pp. 75-78, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Vital Factors for the Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life (2021 ITERO), week 5, The Factor of the Genuine One Accord.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Pray with one accord in spirit, / Supplicate relatedly; / Seek the Lord, His mind, His leading, / In the Spirit’s harmony. / Pray with one accord in spirit, / Pray and watch persistently; / For God’s kingdom and His glory, / Pray and watch in harmony. (Hymns #779)
– If we would be built together; / If related we would be; / To be fitly framed together; / Follow brothers constantly. / Follow brothers for the building; / Never independent be; / Follow brothers, be in order, / Functioning in harmony. (Hymns #1247)
– In this age we’re being turned / To the Spirit to be burned; / Now in spirit we can see / Christ, the church, our unity! / In the spirit we can taste / All the riches of Thy grace; / All Thy fullness, blessed Lord / Is for those in one accord! (Hymns #1239)
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