Since 1997, I have watched Dave pray and cry and bombard heaven on behalf of the United States. I do not weep over our nation the way he does, but that does not mean I do not care or that I do not pray for our leaders. It simply means that I cannot force myself to have Dave’s passion, because that passion is God-given. It also means that God is using Dave and me as a team; He has Dave playing one position and me playing another. If I start to wonder what is wrong with me because I do not intercede the way Dave does, I end up under condemnation—and that will keep me from fulfilling what God has called me to do. However, if I stay confident in my position and focus on being excellent in it, our team wins every time. God does not assign everything to everyone. The Holy Spirit divides things up the way He sees fit and all we need to do is our part.
When Not to Pray
Do you know that sometimes we can pray for someone and be opposing God’s will? Believe it or not, there are times when we are not supposed to intercede for a person. God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 7:16, “Therefore do not pray for this people [of Judah] or lift up a cry or entreaty for them or make intercession to Me, for I will not listen to or hear you.”
Sometimes, through our prayers, we can protect people and keep the enemy away from them. But there are times when the enemy needs to get close enough to them that they have to go through something unpleasant because that difficulty is the very thing that will turn them to God. This is important, because the enemy wants us to think we are in sin if we are not praying for someone. He will use the fact that we are not interceding to heap condemnation on us and to keep us from praying the way God wants in that situation. That is why we must be led by the Holy Spirit. He may not tell us to pray for someone very often, but when He does, we need to know His voice, resist the enemy, and obey.
A Most Powerful Prayer
One of the most powerful prayers you can pray is a prayer for your enemies. If you want to see someone who is mighty in prayer, look for the person who will intercede for an enemy. I believe that God blesses us tremendously when we intercede for those who have offended or betrayed us.
If you want to see someone who is mighty in prayer, look for the person who will intercede for an enemy.
Remember Job? He had to pray for his friends after they had really hurt and disappointed him. But immediately after he prayed, God began to restore his life. In fact, God gave him back twice as much as he had lost (see Job 42:10)! Praying for someone who has hurt us is so powerful because, when we do, we are walking in love toward that person and we are obeying the Word of God.
What does Jesus tell us to do in Matthew 5:44? He instructs us to pray for our enemies, saying, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”(KJV). When you think about the people who have used you, abused you, harassed you, and spoken evil of you, bless them; do not curse them. Pray for them. God knows that blessing your enemies is not easy and that you may not feel like doing it. But you don’t do it because you feel like it—you do it as unto the Lord. Choosing to pray and bless instead of curse is so powerful in the spiritual realm, and God will do great things in your life as a result of it.
THE PRAYER OF AGREEMENT
When you have been praying about something and do not seem to be making any progress, you may need to get someone to pray in agreement with you. That kind of unity is a powerful spiritual dynamic, and according to Psalm 133, it is good and it garners God’s blessing.
When two or more people come into agreement, Jesus Himself promises to be with them, and His presence exerts more power than we can even imagine in our lives and in our circumstances. He says in Matthew 18:19–20: “Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven. For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My followers) in (into) My name, there I AM in the midst of them.” God is also with us as individuals, but our power increases as we come together in unity and agreement. The Bible says that one can put one thousand to flight and two can run off ten thousand (see Deuteronomy 32:30). I like that kind of math!
Because God’s blessing rests on unity and His presence is with those who agree in His name, the enemy works diligently to divide people, to bring strife into relationships, to provoke anger and jealousy, and to keep people at odds with each other. We need to understand the power of unity and agreement, and though we do need private times of intimate communion with God, we also need to exercise the power of praying in agreement with others.
Living in Agreement
The prayer of agreement is only effective when those who come into agreement in prayer are living in agreement in our natural, everyday lives. Living in agreement does not mean we cannot ever have our own opinions about anything, but it does mean that there is harmony, mutual respect, and honor in our relationships. It means there is an absence of the things that cause division and strife—like selfishness, anger, resentment, jealousy, bitterness, or comparison. Living in agreement is like being on the same ball team—everyone works together, supports and encourages each other, believes each other, and trusts each other as they all pursue the same goal and share the victory.
My husband, Dave, and I live in agreement. That does not mean that we never have differing opinions or that we never disagree about anything. It does mean, though, that we are committed to avoiding strife and division in our relationship, that we sometimes have to “agree to disagree,” and that we honor and respect each other.
Likewise, I live in agreement with the people at Joyce Meyer Ministries. I am not intimately involved in every decision made, but I have communicated my heart to the people who work for us. When they make decisions, they do so in agreement with the vision that God has given and I have expressed to them. In this way, all of us are praying and working in agreement with the God-given purpose for the ministry, and we are experiencing great blessings and being used to bless others beyond anything we ever imagined.
Just as I want you to know what it means to live in agreement, I also want you to know what living in agreement is not. For example, we cannot gossip about the pastor all week and then ask him to agree with us in prayer for healing if we get a bad report from the doctor. We cannot scream at our children every day, nag them, or continually point out their faults and then say we will agree with them in prayer for a good grade on a test at school. We cannot talk behind a coworker’s back and then ask that person to agree with us in prayer to keep our jobs when we know layoffs are imminent. We cannot fight with our spouse all the time, complain about them to our friends, and then, when they lose their job, say, “Well, let’s just pray in agreement that you’ll get another job soon.” We cannot hold unspoken resentment toward a family member for years and then ask that person to pray in agreement for both of us to be mightily blessed when the time comes to read grandfather’s will.
Maintaining unity and harmony does require effort, but the power released when people pray who live in agreement is worth it. God is honored when we commit to live in unity because He knows it is not always easy. Be a maker and maintainer of peace and you will be called a son of God (see Matthew 5:9).
Pray in Agreement; Pray to God
In Luke 18:10–11, we read about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other one was a tax collector. Jesus said, “The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men—extortioners (robbers), swindlers [unrighteous in heart and life], adulterers—or even like this tax collector here.” Then he went on to list all of his good works.
Agreement is incredibly powerful, but it has to be pure, and it has to come from a place of humility.
What I like about this passage is that the Bible does not say the Pharisee was praying to God. It says he went into the temple to pr
ay, but he prayed “thus before and with himself.” Here we read about a man who appeared to be praying, and yet the Bible says he was not even talking to God; he was talking to himself! I think sometimes we also pray to impress people, maybe even to impress ourselves. Let’s be honest: we can be impressed with our own eloquence. When we are praying in agreement with someone else or with a group of people, we have to be very careful that we are not preaching to the other people and that we are not simply trying to sound superspiritual, but that our prayers are led by the Spirit and that we are really sharing our hearts with God. Agreement is incredibly powerful, but it has to be pure, and it has to come from a place of humility.
Multiplied Power
Jesus has promised that if two people on earth agree about something, God will bring it to pass (see Matthew 18:19). As I have already shared, He answers prayers of agreement when the people who are praying are already expressing agreement in their everyday lives. He so appreciates those who pay the price to live in agreement, unity, and harmony that He says to them essentially, “When you get together like that, My power is released among you. The power of your agreement is so dynamic that you’re going to break through—no doubt about it. I’ll do it.”
You see, agreement is so powerful that it is a principle of multiplication, not addition. That is why the Bible says that one person can put a thousand to flight and two can do ten thousand (see Deuteronomy 32:30). If agreement were based on addition, one would put a thousand to flight and two would put two thousand. But unity commands God’s blessing—and God’s blessing brings multiplication. For that reason, the prayer of true agreement is a strong and mighty force in the spiritual realm.
Not long ago, I heard a story about a young man who prayed the prayer of agreement with the pastors of his church. It is a great testimony to the power of this type of prayer, and I believe it will both help you understand how to pray in agreement with others and encourage you to do so.
Alan was twenty-one years old when he felt in his heart that God wanted to send him a wife. To many, he was entirely too young to be thinking of such a commitment, but after talking with his pastors, they also agreed that it was the Lord who was leading him to believe for an answer to this request. He was walking in a close, accountable relationship with his pastors, practicing the principle of living in unity.
Because he understood and believed in the prayer of agreement, and to demonstrate that he was completely serious about his prayer, Alan called one of his pastors every day to pray for his wife. Alan prayed, “God, the Bible says that You put the single in families, and I am asking You to send me my wife in Your perfect timing.”
On the other end of the telephone, his pastor would come into agreement with Alan’s request. “Lord, I agree with Alan,” he would say, “and Your Word says that if any two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. So, Lord, we agree and believe that Alan’s wife will come quickly in Jesus’ name.”
Within six short weeks, God answered Alan’s prayer. With uncanny certainty, he knew that his wife was to be a young woman he had met months earlier. Until that point, neither had any interest in the other, but after Alan and his pastor began to pray every day, feelings began to change in both Alan and the girl.
At first, they both dismissed it, as Alan was certain that surely the Lord would not answer so quickly. He expected God to send his wife months, if not years, later. Even so, he was still prepared to pray every day for his bride to come, but six weeks seemed a bit ahead of schedule! After rebuking the feelings for a time, both realized that truly God was leading them to wed. The two courted for seven months before they married.
Looking back, Alan directly connects their marriage to the nights where he faithfully called his pastor, and they agreed that God would send and bless a mate for him. The couple has now been married more than two years, are expecting their first child, and are serving God together wholeheartedly.
Let me be quick to say that everyone who prays the prayer of agreement for a spouse may not meet his or her mate as quickly as Alan did. Remember that Alan was asking God to bring his wife in God’s perfect timing, and it just so happened that God chose to answer quickly.
All of us can experience the power of the prayer of agreement, just as Alan did. Personally, I have also experienced the power of agreement in many areas of my life and ministry. I know that the prayer of agreement is indeed a type of prayer that releases multiplied power, and I am believing that praying this way will have tremendous results in your life.
SUMMARY
As believers, we live as part of a family—God’s family. Relationships are at the core of the Christian life and we are to help each other, encourage each other, share with each other, and bear each other’s burdens. We are also to include one another in our prayer lives by praying for and with other people.
When we pray for other people, we are practicing a type of prayer known as intercession. When we intercede, we are also joining Jesus in His ministry and we are cooperating with Him as He intercedes in heaven for those of us on earth. Intercession can truly change the course of a person’s life and we are privileged to be able to pray for the people around us. We never need to devalue the power of our prayers; just one person’s prayers can make a major difference!
Not only can we pray for people, we can also pray with people in the prayer of agreement. Harmony in relationships leads to unity in prayer, which releases great power in people’s lives and situations. Andrew Murray writes that “[God] gives us a very special promise for the united prayer of two or three who agree in what they ask.”3 That promise is the power, the comfort, and the guidance that is available in His presence as we pray. God’s power, comfort, and guidance are available to you. He wants you to experience them in powerful and personal ways—and so do I.
Prayer Points
• Intercession is prayer for other people. When we intercede, we stand in the gap between God and another person.
• God can change His mind as a result of intercession.
• In intercession, let the Holy Spirit lead and cooperate with what He is doing in the lives of the people for whom you are praying. When you have a burden to pray, pray until it lifts. If you sense for some reason that you are not to pray about a situation, trust God in that and do not force yourself to pray.
• We all need to find our place in prayer and be faithful to fulfill the intercessory assignments God gives us.
• Some of the most powerful prayers we can pray are prayers for our enemies.
• A powerful spiritual dynamic comes into play when people who are living in agreement begin to pray in agreement.
• Living in agreement includes harmony, purity, honor, and humility in a relationship. It requires the absence of strife, jealousy, resentment, anger, and bitterness.
• The prayer of agreement brings the power of multiplication and the blessing of God into a situation.
9
The Word and the Spirit
In the past several chapters, we have examined several different types of prayer. Whatever type of prayer we pray—whether it is a prayer of consecration or commitment, petition or perseverance, intercession or agreement, praise, worship, or thanksgiving, God’s Word is an essential ingredient. Our prayers are always effective when we “remind” God of His Word and pray in faith that He is able to perform what He has spoken.
I also believe that to be most effective, prayer needs to be “in the Spirit.” As I mentioned in chapter 3, different groups of people throughout the body of Christ have different ideas about what “praying in the Spirit” means, but most Christians seem to agree that it means to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us as we pray instead of praying whatever we want to pray. I have a personal conviction about “praying in the Spirit,” which I will elaborate on later in this chapter, but more than anything else, I believe that we all should endeavor to the best of our ability to let the Holy Spirit inspire
and empower our prayers.
We need both the Word and the Spirit in our prayers in order to stay balanced and strong in our spiritual lives. If people seek supernatural experiences or even become excessive in spiritual matters, they may become deceived and be too emotional or even flaky. At the same time, if we focus on the Word without also being sensitive to the Spirit, we can become legalistic and dry. When we have the Spirit and the Word together, we can live solid lives that are balanced—grounded in truth and graced with joy and power. We need the solid foundation of the Word of God and we need the enthusiasm and excitement of the Spirit. Praying in agreement with the Word and praying in the Spirit keeps us praying according to God’s will. It also causes our prayers to be effective and bears great fruit in our lives. Whatever you do, I encourage you to fill your prayers with the Word and let the Holy Spirit lead. You will see tremendous results.
PRAYING GOD’S WORD
Isaiah 62:6 instructs us to “remind” God of the promises He has made to us and one of the best ways to do that is to pray His Word back to Him. That verse says, “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace day or night; you who [are His servants and by your prayers] put the Lord in remembrance [of His promises], keep not silence” (emphasis mine).