Agreement Prayer: Praying as a Church Needs a Different Element to be Powerful

Prayer is just talking to God. This is especially so for the individual believer. And crucial to this is faith. He who comes to God must believe that he is there and rewards them who desperately seek him. But when the church comes together in prayer it's a bit different thing. Aside from faith, agreement is vital.

In individual prayer, it's  necessary to spend quality time with God. You can't spend just some minutes with him. You need to be in his presence and forget about time. In fact, you need to pray without ceasing. You need to keep talking to God the whole day, even in your sleep. But not in group prayer.

In group prayer, you don't need to pray long. What you need is agreement. In fact, it's unhealthy to pray long in group prayer because other people are likely to drift away mentally when waiting for their turn to pray. People's attention span is just 10 or 20 seconds. What if there were 5 people praying together, waiting for their turn, and each took 20 seconds to pray (the average is 30 to 40 seconds)---and each mentally wanders off? No agreement is reached. Thus, though there may be many people praying in church, the prayer is powerless.

Look at how long the church in Acts once prayed together.

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.'

27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” [4.24-30]

Pray it and it'd take you only 15 seconds or so to do it. So it's a short prayer the whole church prayed altogether all at once. They didn't need to pray one by one, each one waiting for their turn to pray while another is praying, or having 4 people to pray one after the other for the rest to say Amen to. Nope, they all just prayed one prayer and it was powerful.

After praying, "the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." What made it powerful? Was it because they prayed a long prayer? Was it because they worded their prayer beautifully? Nope, it was because they agreed in prayer. And you get a hint of this from the following verse: "All the believers were one in heart and mind."

Jesus gave them the secret to a powerful church or group prayer: "Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven." {Matthew 18.19]. He didn't say, if two of you prayed long prayers, or if two of you prayed beautifully worded prayers. He emphasized agreement. It's the key to binding in heaven what is bound on earth and releasing or loosing in heaven what is released or loosed on earth. Powerful!

Agreement is powerful. Being one in mind and heart is powerful. That's why believers being completely united as the Father and Son are one is powerful [John 17.22-23]. And this is why the church being one flesh with the Lord is powerful [Ephesians 5.30-32]. Kingdom power is keyed in agreement.

So don't think that praying long prayers will please God. What he wants is faith and agreement. When praying as a church, short sentence prayers are enough. Once, I did a prayer meeting in church and I had each one of them share his prayer request using a short sentence. After one person did, we paused shortly and together as a church simply said, "Amen, Lord!" And then another person did, and so on. They found it weird because they were used to long, poetic and flowery prayers.

I told them that sincerity in listening and sincerity in saying "Amen" (sincerity in agreement) was what mattered in the Kingdom of God. "Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak..." [James 1.19]. I said we didn't have to repeat the matter to God after it has been expressed by the person concerned because God was right there (really there!) in our midst as a real participant listening to our conversation. In fact, Jesus said God knows our need even before we say it. We have to take these truths seriously and use them in actual life situations, like in praying.

I saw in their faces that they didn't quite get it yet. It was something out of this world to them. Some even giggled when we were doing it. They were used to a deaf God to whom you have to repeat prayer concerns already expressed vocally in the group, or a God who was there in your midst but didn't listen to your conversation. But if you really believe Jesus is right there in your midst when you gather together, then you believe he also hears everything you say there, including casual talks. I mean, he is really there! We have to start really believing this.

The longest recorded prayer in the New Testament is Jesus' prayer in John 17. You rarely find Jesus praying long verbal prayers in the bible. Much less, praying in public with long prayers. However, I see the John-17 prayer really as a group prayer where Jesus also taught the disciples vital Kingdom principles. It's a group prayer because he said it in front of the disciples. So in a way, they were listening participants. Jesus intently made them hear the prayer so they could learn vital Kingdom processes and truths. It's not surprising then that he made it long.

But Jesus prayed longer when all alone, There was even a time when "he prayed all night." And I see this as his usual habit. He often talked with the Father for long hours. And he always talked with the Father mentally, probably 24 hours a day. This can be glimpsed in what he said before raising Lazarus from the dead. Even if there is no mention in the passage about Jesus praying to the Father about raising Lazarus from the dead, he thanked God for already hearing him. This shows Jesus prayed mentally and I think he always did this.

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You remember when Jesus raised to life a dead girl in Mark 5? It says he didn't let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John. Why? This was about agreement. It's useless to minister to someone in need and go there as a whole church if not everyone agrees with you. So he picked just three because a small group is easier to control. And perhaps he saw stronger faith in these three.

Now, when the crowd that was outside the funeral laughed at him because he claimed the dead girl was just sleeping, "he put them all out" and brought in just her dad and mom and the three disciples. Here again we see the importance of agreement.

It's not the big numbers that determine power in the spirit realms. It's not the long and beautiful prayers that people love to hear and marvel at. It's faith and sincere agreement.

Present MOVE: Seeing the UNSEEN in real time.