I would recommend that we pray-read all of the verses cited above in the Scripture reading so that we can enter into the burden of this message.
In these days we are burdened for the blending of the saints in the vital groups. We may pray for this blending and talk about it, but how can we be blended to have the real one accord? The Greek word for one accord is homothumadon, from homo, meaning same, and thumos, meaning mind, will, purpose (soul, heart). The one accord refers to the harmony in our inner being, in our mind and will. In Matthew 18:19 the Lord said, “If two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens.” In harmony here is as musical sounds are in harmony. We need this harmony as our one accord. How can we have this?
We have to realize that according to God’s ordination our soul should not direct our entire being. Of course, all fallen men are either directed by the flesh to live a fleshly, sinful life or directed by the soul to live a kind of philosophical life, logical life, or ethical life. A fleshy and fleshly man is a person who lives in the flesh under the influence and nature of the flesh (1 Cor. 3:1, 3a). A person whose soul dominates his entire being is what the Bible calls a soulish man (1 Cor. 2:14). Such a person attempts to control the lusts of his flesh by his logic of ethics. That kind of control is directed by the soul. But according to the God-ordained way, it should be our spirit that is strong to direct our soul, even to control our entire being. A person who is dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by his mingled spirit is a spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:15). Today we desire to be blended, and our being blended will surely produce a one accord in our spirit under the direction of the Spirit.
In Matthew 18:19 the Lord spoke of two praying together on earth in harmony. In the book of Acts, we can see that the one hundred twenty practiced the Lord’s command to pray in harmony, to pray in one accord (1:14). Their one accord was produced by their being in the spirit. In the four Gospels, none of the disciples understood anything about being in the spirit. The Lord called James and John “Sons of Thunder” because of their impetuosity (Mark 3:17). When the Lord and His disciples were not received by the Samaritans, James and John said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” The Lord rebuked them and said, “You do not know of what kind of spirit you are” (Luke 9:54-55). They did not care for the Spirit because their spirit had not yet been regenerated. But in the evening of the day of resurrection, the Lord came to the disciples and breathed Himself as the Spirit into them (John 20:22). The Lord became a life-giving Spirit on the day of resurrection and was breathed into His disciples.
With the spiritual things in the Bible, there is first the position and then the reality. The birthright is first a positional matter and then the reality follows. First Peter 1:3 says that we all were regenerated through the resurrection of Christ. When Christ was resurrected, we were also resurrected (Eph. 2:6) and regenerated. The position of our regeneration was fully gained by Christ on the day of His resurrection. Thus, we were positioned into the resurrection almost two thousand years ago. But we did not receive this reality until the day that we confessed our sins and believed in the Lord Jesus.
Only the Lord Himself knew about the position of our regeneration. We did not realize anything about this until the day we received the Lord in time as the reality of regeneration. This may be compared to a small child having the position to receive his birthright. He does not know anything about his birthright until he becomes twenty-one years old. Then he receives the reality of his birthright. In the morning of the day of His resurrection, the Lord gained the position of regeneration for His disciples. But that evening the Lord breathed Himself as the Spirit into the disciples. That was when they received the Lord as the life-giving Spirit for the reality of their regeneration.
By reading the New Testament we can see the difference between what the disciples were in the Gospels and what they were in Acts. Even though the disciples followed the Lord quite faithfully in His earthly ministry, they were either in the mind or in the flesh. Peter even acted in a way that caused the Lord Jesus to call him “Satan” (Matt. 16:23). But in Acts their situation was entirely different. In Acts they were spiritual persons. How could the one hundred twenty pray together for ten days in one accord? Only people who are in the spirit could do this. They were people in the spirit because the Spirit had been breathed into them. A number of times in the Gospels, Peter spoke in a nonsensical way and was rebuked or corrected by the Lord. But in Acts 1 he could expound and interpret the Bible (vv. 15-22). This proves that the disciples were in the spirit in Acts 1. This is why they were able to pray together in one accord for ten days. They prayed in one accord, and they prayed to build up the one accord. There was a very strong one accord among them.
We cannot say that there is no one accord among us today. To say this is not fair. We do have the one accord, but everything has its degree. There may be many graduates in a school, but their graduation is in different degrees. Some graduate as “straight A” students. Others graduate as “C” or even “C–” students. All of these students graduate but they graduate in different degrees. We have the one accord today, but how high and how deep is our one accord? This is a problem. The one hundred twenty prayed in one accord for ten days. Probably on the tenth day, their one accord went to the heavens. It became the strongest and the highest one accord. At that time the heaven opened and the Spirit was poured out.