Lesson 50: The Power of United Prayer, part 3
In the Apostle Paul we see very distinctly what a reality his faith in the power of united prayer was. To the Romans he writes (Romans 15:30), “I beseech you, brethren, by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayer to God for me.” He expects in answer to be delivered from his enemies, and to be prospered in his work. To the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1:11), “God will still deliver us, you also helping together on our behalf by your supplications;” their prayer is to have a real share in his deliverance. To the Ephesians he writes, “With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit for all the saints and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me.” His power and success in his ministry he makes to depend on their prayers. With the Philippians (1:19) he expects that his trials will turn to his salvation and the progress of the gospel “through your supplications and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. To the Colossians (4:3) he adds to the injunction to continue steadfast in prayer: “Meanwhile praying for us too, that God may open unto us a door for the word.” And to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 3:1) he writes, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable men.” It is everywhere evident that Paul felt himself the member of a body, on the sympathy and co-operation of which he was dependent, and that he counted on the prayers of these Churches to gain for him what otherwise might not be given. The prayers of the Church were to him as real a factor in the work of the kingdom as the power of God.
Who can say what power a Church could develop and exercise if it gave itself to the work of prayer day and night for the coming of the kingdom, for God’s power on His servants and His word, for the glorifying of God in the salvation of souls? Most Churches think their members are gathered into one simply to take care of and build up each other. They know not that God rules the world by the prayers of His saints; that prayer is the power by which Satan is conquered; that by prayer the Church on earth has disposal of the powers of the heavenly world. They do not remember that Jesus has, by His promise, consecrated every assembly in His Name to be a gate of heaven, where His Presence is to be felt, and His Power experienced in the Father fulfilling their desires.
We cannot sufficiently thank God for the blessed week of united prayer with which Christendom in our days opens every year. As proof of our unity and our faith in the power of united prayer, as a training-school for the enlargement of our hearts to take in all the needs of the Church universal, as a help to united persevering prayer, it is of unspeakable value. But very specially as a stimulus to continued union in prayer in the smaller circles, its blessing has been great. It will become even greater as God’s people recognize what it is, all to meet as one in the Name of Jesus to have His presence in the midst of a body all united in the Holy Spirit, and boldly to claim the promise that it shall be done of the Father what they agree to ask.
Prayer: Grant especially Blessed Lord, that Your Church may believe that it is by the power of united prayer that she can bind and loose in heaven; that Satan can be cast out; that souls can be saved; that mountains can be removed; that the kingdom can be hastened. And grant, good Lord, that in the circle with which I pray, the prayer of the Church may indeed be the power through which Your Name and Word are glorified.