Lori eagerly arranged her notes as she walked into the weekly prayer meeting a few minutes early. Stationing herself by the only entrance, she greeted each attendee with a copy of her prayer list and a smile.
“No need to thank me. This way, you won’t forget my requests. Please take particular note of those I’ve highlighted in yellow.”
Mark smiled right back as he snatched the paper, then settled into his favourite chair with a dangerous glint in his eyes. Barely scanning Lori’s outline, he shook his head.
“Well, maybe after we get through all the people I want God to deal with, we might have time for your little list.”
Nudging Patti with an elbow, Susan rolled her eyes as she listened to the by-play between Lori and Mark. In a stage whisper, Susan confided, “Well, I know which way I’m going to pray, and I’ve got the Scripture to back it! Those poor little orphans in Romania. Why, that’s where we should be praying!”
Patti tried to mask her dismay by looking at the clock on the wall. She was clearly not in the mood to sit through another long prayer meeting.
Hoping to rally the troops behind her, Patti energetically declared, “We’re going for a prayer walk! While we’re walking, I’ll figure out how we can reach our neighbourhood. I know just the place to go.”
As she tugged her coat back on, Patti stormed out of the room, fully expecting everyone else to fall into line behind her.
“Let’s go!”
When Everyone Brings Their Own Agenda
If you polled the members of this hypothetical prayer group, I think you’d find most of them dissatisfied and frustrated by the apparent lack of answered prayer resulting from their faithful weekly meetings.
Over time, I imagine their numbers dwindled to a few bewildered people. Those who left probably concluded that corporate prayer just wasn’t for them. Those who stayed assumed the group’s ineffectiveness was due to everyone else’s refusal to get with the program—their program!
Unfortunately, this little prayer group never discovered the importance of coming together in unity. They never learned to wait on the Lord together, laying their individual agendas at the Cross.
Their prayers were more like buckshot than arrows—plenty being fired, but very little shared direction. Sometimes one well-aimed arrow is far more effective than a whole lot of buckshot.
Corporate prayer isn’t supposed to be several individual prayer meetings happening simultaneously in the same room.
There is something powerful about coming together with the expectation that God will speak and that we will listen. That means surrendering even our good intentions, worthy causes, favourite Scriptures, and beautifully highlighted prayer lists.
The Holy Spirit may have arrived without reading our notes.
Learning to Listen Together
Over the years, I’ve found great joy in being part of prayer meetings where people grasped this truth. There is enormous power in mutual submission and in laying down our own wishes and desires.
We wait. We listen. We discern together. Then we pray into what we sense God is highlighting.
Sometimes He leads us straight toward the very thing burning on our hearts. Sometimes He takes a turn we weren’t expecting. And sometimes He doesn’t go anywhere near the carefully prepared agenda we brought with us.
That’s when following actually becomes following.
United prayer doesn’t mean everybody has to pray the same way or use the same words. Nor is unity a technique for getting God to answer our prayers. It means we’re willing to listen to one another and, most importantly, to the Holy Spirit.
When hearts truly come together around what God is doing, corporate prayer can be a glorious thing. We get to partner with Him as He touches families, communities, churches, cities, and nations. We pray for healing, restoration, salvation, reconciliation, and whatever else He places before us.
Psalm 133:1 (MSG)
“How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!”
Questions To Pause On
Think back to a prayer meeting where you sensed God’s stamp of approval. What encouraged you?
Now think of a meeting you walked away from feeling frustrated or discouraged. What was happening there?
And what about silence?
Are you uncomfortable when nobody is praying aloud during a prayer meeting or worship time? Do you feel somebody needs to fill that space?
Don’t be afraid of those moments. Settle your attention on the Lord and listen. If your mind wanders to tomorrow’s grocery list, the email you forgot to answer, or whatever else is demanding your attention, you can deal with it later.
Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can bring to a prayer meeting is our willingness to put down our beautifully highlighted prayer list and admit that the Holy Spirit may have a different agenda.
After all, none of us was appointed Chairperson of the Holy Spirit.
Until next time,
Katherine Walden
