THE POWERFUL PRAYER OF AGREEMENT
I have been working as a prayer pastor for many years. That was after previously traveling as an evangelist, working as a youth/associate pastor and then finally a senior pastor. The ministry has spanned over 40 years. One thing I have learned, among many things, is everything works much better when Jesus is involved! So prayer is extremely important!
There are probably very few of us who came into our walk with the Lord knowing how to pray. In fact, I’ve met many who struggle with a prayer life currently who have been “saved” for many years.
It’s no wonder. There is an enemy who runs propaganda against your communication. He does it with the people around you on a daily basis. But most of all he tries to interfere with your communication with the Father. Understand that no one can keep you from praying. It is however, easy to feel it is our concession to our busy life, to readily drop our devotional life. Week after week passes with nothing but personal, internal, promises that we will pick it up when we have time. Who was it that said that “busyness is the enemy of devotion”? Oh, I guess I said that! It is because it is every person’s battle to settle whose “will” will be accomplished. So daily prayer and time in the Word of God becomes a familiar battle ground.
I really think the biggest problem is that we don’t realize how powerful our prayers actually are. Jesus was clear that men ought always to pray and not give up. There are so many promises in the New Testament alone concerning God’s desire to answer prayer. If that wasn’t enough to set our hearts on fire, Jesus gives us a word that offers us total answered prayer. It is the “prayer of agreement”.
Look at this verse.
Matthew 18:19-20 (NKJV)
19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
I can remember reading that the first few times as a new believer. I was shocked! I thought I must be reading it wrong because it appeared that if one or two could agree with me, I had answered prayer! No contest! I needed to know…what does it mean to agree?
The dictionary says:
1. The act of agreeing or coming to a mutual arrangement
2. The state of being in accord
3. An arrangement that is accepted by all parties to a transaction
Seems simple right? I think that it should be but through the years, the word “agreement” has been over used. Since I have worked in the area of prayer, I have heard it all concerning agreement. Someone may say, “Agree with me that my children will behave!” or “Agree with me that I will quit spending money!” Although we certainly feel the pain of people in trouble and we pray for them, this is not how the prayer of agreement works.
THE POWER OF THE CORPORATE ANOINTING (Us together + the Power of God)
Have you noticed that if you put three people in a room, it is hard to get all three to really agree on much? They may verbally acquiesce about agreement with you but the truth is, even friends tend to have strong opinions about cause and effect. Do you understand what I am saying? Folks internalize opinions and don’t really agree. It is common for their opinions to be acceptable absolutes. After all, we believe what we think and say more than what anyone else thinks and says. Someone other than us many have contributed to the forming of the internal landscape of our hearts, but what we adopt becomes our filter. If this is the case then how can we achieve this elusive prayer of agreement?
This is how the old King James Version translates this same verse.
Matthew 18:19-20 (KJV)
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
I studied the phrase “as touching” from the KJV that is rendered “concerning” in the NKJV and I found that this word has the idea of completing a circuit.
If you have ever studied electricity you know that the power of electricity is put into a loop. It starts and completes. It touches. If you can imagine, we are like an electrical circuit in the spirit. When we come into agreement, we complete a loop, so to speak, in His name. You can see this on a simple experiment with batteries, wire and a lightbulb. When the batteries bring a charge to the wires it goes around the loop, the lightbulb will light up. Electricity is harnessed and the outcome is light. It is evidence that it has made a circuit. Answered prayer is the result of true agreement. The “loop” is made.
Since it is difficult to get people into agreement, what is our answer? Is there an answer? There must be or Jesus would not have talked to us about it.
HOW DO WE “TOUCH” IN AGREEMENT?
We are coming into agreement with each other, concerning, “touching” the Word of God.
So in other words, we believe God’s Word. We speak it when we pray and it helps us complete the circuit of agreement. So we are not trying to make each other agree concerning our own will and whims, we are combining our efforts on “touching” the Word of God. We become convinced by the Word of God.
The Word of God is not like the word of a man. It has the power to accomplish the supernatural and renew the problem that lies up between our own ears…the problem of how we think and filter. Enough time spent with this supernatural Word will give you the ability to come into agreement with it. It will shift your thought process as you give authority to it. It has the ability to bring others into that place of agreement with you.
Look at this verse!
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV)
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
This is why I use the scripture for all of our corporate prayer meetings. This is why you will find scripture in all my prayer points.
This is what I do:
1. I consider what I am about to ask.
2. I go to the scripture to see what It has to say about the essence of my desire (not everything is mapped out, but in essence it should be there).
3. Then if it passes the test, I go to the scripture to make my case with Jesus before the Father.
4. Jesus is called my advocate. He prays for me. I know that I am coming into agreement with Him and my prayer team is coming into agreement with Him as well. He is my attorney and I am His assistant. Our prayer team makes up His team.
5. An attorney would never go in unprepared for a case. He or she would study other cases, laws, and precedence. We are coming to the Father in Jesus name, so we should know how Jesus is making our case. His Word tells us, so it is just a matter of looking and confirming the will of God concerning the situation at hand.
6. I like to also give the Holy Spirit time to pray through me in my new prayer language because He knows the will of God and can help direct the method I am to ask for. The essence of the Word doesn’t change, but the method to get there is God’s business.
Romans 8:26-28 (NKJV)
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT ONE OF MANY TIMES…
I was pastoring a small church. It was in a very small building but we were growing. The plan had always been to find a place to move into and continue to grow until we were able to come back to the land we owned to build a building. I began to look at options. It was a small town where not much was available. There was an old empty superette, as they used to call the downtown grocery stores, in one edge of the little town. It would allow us to double or better if we could rent it. There were several problems with this plan in the natural. First, it was dilapidated. In order to rent it, I had to remodel it to the tune of $40,000 and yet the building wasn’t mine. $40,000 might as well have been a million! Secondly, I didn’t have a governmental board in the church. My board was a group of very capable men who were over the district in my denomination. Thirdly, I was very aware that anyone with good sense would not want me to spend $40,000 on someone else’s building, especially because we didn’t have that kind of money and I didn’t plan to go in debt. I began to pray about a plan. I felt I should ask for a meeting with these leaders.
The day came when I met with the district board. They were all very kind and wanted to cooperate to help me. I told them what I wanted to do. They all listened. I needed their blessing to proceed, so I did the hard sell on why we needed to make the move. Then one finally spoke. He asked me how much this would cost. I told him that it was $40,000. It was eerily quiet. Then one said, “Do you have the money?” I had to say that I didn’t. Then the next gentleman asked how I planned to obtain that money. This was my crazy answer.
I’M GOING TO RUN A FIREWORKS STAND!
Most every board member in the room kept their eyes on their notebooks. It was obvious that no one wanted to put out the fire of faith in my life, but the next question came.
“Have you run a fireworks stand before?”
“Yes, for the last number of years, even before I became the pastor they ran a fireworks stand.”
The next one asked the obvious history question,
“How much did you make last year?”
I said, “$5,000.”
“Everyone began to move papers around and finally one of them said,
“If you make $40,000 on a fireworks stand and bring a check for $40,000 back to this meeting, I would approve it.” The others said the same.
I LEFT THAT MEETING THINKING, “WHAT DID I JUST DO?”
I went back home. I had felt in my heart that God was going to give us $40,000 through our two little fireworks stands that sat with 4 other stands that belonged to other groups. Even though those two stands had only made $5,000 on the best year, it felt right until I heard myself commit it to these half-dozen godly men. Now I was committed to a ten day window of sales with a history that said it would require a miracle!
I got into God’s Word. I made my case with it for His provision. I made my case for the ability to hear His voice. I called in the other people that knew how to pray. We began to pray the scriptures and declare that God was going to give us $40,000 as His provision. We threw in a little fasting because I was scared! LOL!
THE TIME TO OPEN THE FIREWORKS STAND FINALLY CAME
I have never witnessed anything like it. We had people lined up a dozen deep at both stands for the many hours we were open. The other stands had people but we always had the longest lines. The people bought the most expensive aerials and packages. My husband and Michael, our business guy, logged everything the fireworks company sent to us. We had to go to them multiple times and literally cleaned them out.
By the time we did all the accounting, our profit was $40,000 and a little change!!!!
I took that check back to my district board and presented it to them. I think some were picking their chins up off the table in surprise. Here was a check for $40,000 and some change from the well-known fireworks company. By the way, all the other competitor’s stands by us made in the twenty thousand range! They got a breakthrough from our breakthrough!!!
I remodeled that building and we more than doubled in size there.
WHAT HAPPENED?
We heard from God! We made the circuit (touched). We agreed on God’s Word. He answered!
Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
When God’s people agree with God’s Word, it literally goes out from their mouths as they speak it and it finds it’s “mark”. By the time that Word boomerangs back to you, it has done its work! The prayer is answered! The work is accomplished! Let’s leverage the corporate (together prayer) “touch” with God’s Word and embrace the miraculous kingdom of God activity moving with answered prayer! You don’t have to beg for this activity, it is God’s will to answer. Just do your part…He will do His.
© Copyright Lisa Swayze 2018