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If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them (Matthew 18:19-20, NLT).
A team is needed for great prayers.
Star players succeed on a team. No individual football or basketball player wins without teammates.
The Bible teaches that the church is a team. We are to be so close and working together that we become one body. In the Bible, the term “one another” describes our life together – pray for one another, encourage one another, bear one another’s burdens, and teach one another.
The “one another” imagery is used over 100 times in the New Testament.
The best prayers come through a team effort.
Realizing that our spiritual battle is against generals, colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and privates of demonic ranks, why would any individual believer try to personally defeat this army?
When I hear of someone praying against evil strongholds and yet they haven’t learned to pray in unity with other believers – I think of the impossibility of an individual storming the beaches of Normandy alone.
Not wise. And yet few believers have prayed in formation with one another.
I love to participate in “unified prayer.” Two or three, a dozen, or hundreds – so trained in following the Spirit’s prompting in their requests that Jesus describes the results . . .
I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven (Matthew 18:18).
This forbidding and permitting, or as the King James Version says, “binding and loosing,” happens through our praying together. With this unleashed praying, the gates of evil can’t resist.
There is a rhythm of corporate prayer. One person prays, and another follows with the same focus. Prayers move from praise to gratitude, to individual needs, and then to our cities and nation. A sense of momentum grows in the Spirit as believers build faith at that moment for world-shaking requests.
An hour can easily pass without notice.
A football team develops through hours of practice together. Praying in unity requires the same commitment. A basketball team watches films to determine how to improve. Praying together means humble communication with both affirmation and admonition on how we pray.
The purpose of practice and feedback with teams and prayer warriors is the same – victory.
It’s unfortunate that when the world needs “binding and loosing” prayer more than ever, rarely can believers be found practicing the discipline of praying in unity. I want to find a platoon of believers who desire to pray together.
The world without prayer is lost, but through prayer, unimaginable gains can be made for the Kingdom of God.