Do you know what it means to harmonize? Have you ever sung in a choir? Or done a duet? Whether your musical or not, the need to learn to harmonize is a basic social skill that most of us do, knowingly or unknowingly. Harmonizing is the ability to blend your sound with the sound of others in order to create a new sound that has a pleasing effect. People who are good listeners are good at harmonizing, for they know how to blend their thoughts with the thoughts of the one that is speaking, so the two thoughts intertwine or complement each other. “The term harmony derives from the Greek ἁρμονία harmonia, meaning “joint, agreement, concord”, from the verb ἁρμόζω harmozō, “(Ι) fit together, join”. To harmonize, means you have to be a listener and a learner, so you can join the sound that is being released.

Jesus was a master at harmonizing with His Father. While in a discussion with the religious leaders of His day, Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.” Jesus understood the sound the Father was releasing from heaven and He harmonized with that sound from the earth.

Now let’s look at harmonizing between heaven and earth with this verse, which has been quoted so many times. “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:18-20). Can you hear it? Can you hear how heaven is harmonizing with earth and how we are called to harmonize with each other? Our Father, which art in heaven loves to release sounds for us to harmonize with Him on. He is in heaven, we are on earth and yet if we will harmonize with Him, we can create one sound that is pleasant to hear.

God is a speaking Spirit. He loves to talk. He loves to release sounds from His throne. As we take more time to listen to the sound He is releasing, we will find that unity in the body of Christ is not as difficult as we thought, but we must harmonize with Him. Division comes from us wanting to take the lead, rather than us joining the sound He is releasing. When we harmonize with Him, we will release a sound that will not only cause people to resonate with the sound, but all of creation will recognize the sound. Will you become one who learns how to listen, so you can join the choir and begin to harmonize with Him? He is the sound we are harmonizing with. He is the one who is our leader, we are the ones called to be the listeners. When we do this, we will find that we are harmonizing with Him.