Course: Prayer (1) The Importance of Effective Prayer
Lesson 6
Extract from Andrew Murray ‘With Christ in the
Chapter 15 The Power of United Prayer.
‘Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.' (Matthew 18 19, 20).
The marks of
true united prayer are given us in these words of our Lord.
·
Agreement
The first is agreement as to the thing
asked. There must not only be generally the consent to agree with
anything another may ask: there must be some special thing, matter of
distinct united desire; the agreement must be, as all prayer, in spirit and in
truth. In such agreement it will become very clear to us what exactly we
are asking, whether we may confidently ask according to God’s will, and whether
we are ready to believe that we have received what we ask.
·
Gathering in the Name of Jesus
The second mark
is the gathering in, or into, the Name of Jesus. We shall afterwards have
much more to learn of the need and the power of the Name of Jesus in prayer;
here our Lord teaches us that the Name must be the centre of union to which
believers gather, the bond of union that makes them one, just as a home
contains and unites all who are in it. ‘The Name of the Lord is a strong
tower; the righteous runneth into it and
escape.’ That Name is such a reality to those who understand and believe
it, that to meet within it is to have Himself present.
The love and unity of His disciples have to Jesus infinite attraction:
‘Where two or three are gathered in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.’ It is the living
presence of Jesus, in the fellowship of His loving praying disciples,
that gives united prayer its power.
·
Answer
The third mark
is, the sure answer: ‘It shall be done for them of my Father.’ A
prayer-meeting for maintaining religious fellowship, or seeking our own
edification, may have its use; this was not the Saviour’s view in its
appointment. He meant it as a means of securing special answer to prayer. A prayer meeting without
recognised answer to prayer ought to be an anomaly. When any of us have
distinct desires in regard to which we feel too weak to exercise the needful faith,
we ought to seek strength in the help of other. In the unity of faith and
of love and of the Spirit, the power of the Name and the Presence of Jesus acts
more freely and the answer comes more surely. The mark that there has
been true united prayer is the fruit, the answer, the receiving of the thing we
have asked: ‘I say unto you, It shall be done
for them of my Father which is in heaven.’
What an
unspeakable privilege this of united prayer is, and what a power it might
be.
·
If the
believing husband and wife knew that they were joined together in the Name of
Jesus to experience His presence and power in united prayer (1 Peter);
·
if
friends believed what mighty help two or three praying in concert could give
each other;
·
if in
every prayer meeting the coming together in the Name, the faith in the
Presence, and the expectation of the answer, stood in the foreground;
·
if in
every Church united effectual prayer were regarded as one of the chief purposes
for which they are banded together, the highest exercise of their power as a
Church;
·
if in the
Church universal the coming of the kingdom, the coming of the King Himself,
first in the mighty outpouring of His Holy Spirit, then in His own glorious
person, were really matter of unceasing united crying to God;—O who can say
what blessing might come to, and through, those who thus agreed to prove God in
the fulfilment of His promise.