The Blessing of Praying Together
Every Sunday at 7:30 am I join a small group for prayer before the day’s activities begin. It’s such a great way to start a Sunday morning. There is something special about praying together. I love praying on my own, but I have found that in the presence of others, God often blesses me with focus that I lack on my own, with a sense of his presence that I sometimes miss on my own.
Many have had negative experiences with corporate prayer. Perhaps people droned on about distant relatives’ needs and little time was spent in prayer. Or maybe you experienced an emotionally manipulative prayer gathering. There are many ways that corporate prayer can go wrong. But when it goes right, there are few things more spiritually invigorating.
In Paul Miller’s book A Praying Church, Miller argues that corporate prayer is “the very breath of the church.” Prayer isn’t something we do in addition to the church's work; it is the church's work. If God is the one who accomplishes all things, prayer is our invitation to join him. In Luke’s simple summation of the activities of the church in Acts 2:42 he says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Think about that: we can show up on Sunday morning, having prepped our Sunday school lessons, tuned our guitars, and percolated the coffee to perfection, but if the Holy Spirit isn’t present, we can be assured of one thing: not a single life will be changed. But if the Spirit is active, watch out! Witness the early church where, at the conclusion of one prayer gathering, a miraculous stirring took place, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
Can the Spirit be active without our prayers? Without a doubt. But for some reason, God has delights in using our prayers in the activity of the Spirit. In Ephesians, Paul gives us a glimpse of his prayer life for the church at Ephesus,
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:14-21)
Paul kneels down, praying that the Spirit would give the church the experience of Christ’s love and the enlightenment to know just a little bit more of the breadth of that love. He concludes with a prayer that God would receive glory through his people.
As Paul concludes his letter, we see that Paul doesn’t leave the church out. He wants them to participate with him. Having reframed the Christian life as a spiritual battle, Paul urges them to be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (Eph. 6:18-20). Paul invites them to follow the Spirit’s lead in prayer and asks for their prayers for himself. Do you want to experience the Lord’s victory? Join together and pray.
It has been noted that revivals tend to begin with focused times devoted to corporate prayer and confession. The Great Awakening, for instance, started with a small prayer gathering led by a man you’ve likely never heard of.[i] The Welsh Revival of 1904 began with similarly humble origins in a prayer meeting.[ii] Given Paul’s encouragement in Ephesians 6, I don’t think this is a fluke. A story is told about the powerful ministry of Charles Spurgeon that one day a group of young ministers visited his church. After showing them his sanctuary, “Spurgeon offered to show them his ‘boiler room.’ The guests were not interested because boiler rooms were not pleasant places to visit. They were hot and dirty; usually located down in the basement. In Spurgeon’s time, steam was the power source of the day; boiler rooms were the powerhouses, the driving forces of everything. Spurgeon led the young ministers down to the basement where they found about one hundred people in prayer. ‘This,’ Spurgeon said with a smile, ‘is my boiler room.’ Whenever Spurgeon was asked the secret of his ministry he always replied, ‘My people pray for me.’”[iii]
The Word of God is the primary means of God’s communication to us, but God also speaks through his Spirit offering direction to us. In Acts 13 the church of Antioch gathered to pray over Saul and Barnabas. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). One of the faithful members of our prayer group shared with me, “For me, I find corporate prayer is effective at building my faith in the Spirit of God. Many times during corporate prayer a prayer comes to mind and before I speak it, another partner speaks it. How cool is it to know you have heard the Spirit corporately!”
Most today pray, but a decreasing number pray together. But perhaps we ought not let our prayers be only solitary (as good as it is to pray alone with God). When Jesus gives us a paradigm for what prayer looks like (Matt. 5:9-13), he teaches us a corporate prayer (“our father,” “our daily bread,” “our debts,” “deliver us from evil”). So let’s pray together, as families, small groups, ministries, and corporate prayer gatherings.
If your church has a prayer ministry, perhaps you might want to join in the quiet, but mighty work they’re doing. If your church doesn’t have a prayer gathering, you might want to start one. And if you attend New Life, maybe you might want to join a few of us at 7:30am on Sunday mornings as we seek the Lord and pray that he might root and ground his saints in love and give them the strength to comprehend its breadth, length, and depth.
[i] https://www.christianunion.org/the-magazine/2042-prayer-that-brought-revival. The man’s name was Jeremiah Lanphier.
[ii] https://thecomingrevival.com/prayer-history-during-revivals/
[iii] 24/7 United Prayer, https://247unitedprayer.org/faq-items/faq/
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