Resources

Pray3r: Strength 1n Num8ers



By Steve Johnson

October 2009
 
Personal disaster strikes. The call for prayer goes out. Church prayer chains rattle with activity: a flurry of emails blitz the Internet, imploring everyone to pray, and phone lines buzz, requesting intercession for those involved.

If you have been a Christian for any length of time it’s likely you’ve been part of a similar scenario.

Many good things come because of this practice. When multitudes of believers pray for the same thing there is a sense of unity — the same Holy Spirit dwelling within believers knits us together in a unique bond of fellowship found nowhere else in life. It gets us on the same page and mindful of seeking first the Kingdom of God. Struggling believers are encouraged by the concern that is expressed and we learn love and compassion for others as we intercede for them.

But, while intercessory prayer is certainly biblical, I wonder whether some of our assumptions and motivations behind this kind of prayer are unbiblical.

How would you answer the following questions: Does prayer have a greater chance of being answered when more people are asking for the same thing? Is the probability of a prayer being answered affirmatively proportional to the number of people praying? Is prayer like magnetism where, if you have one magnet, the power is minimal, but if you have 10, there is 10 times the power?

If the answer to these questions is no, why do we often act like it is yes? Is it our numbers or our faith, which God responds to?

There is nothing in Scripture to suggest that multitudes praying are more powerful or effective than individual prayers in moving the hand of God. So where does this wrong assumption come from?

Far too many Christians have wrong conceptions of prayer. Some equate it with “getting things from God.” And too often, prayer is primarily an occasion to recite a list of our wants.

Over the years, I have heard people refer to the power of prayer. Is it the prayer that is powerful or the God to whom we pray?

People also say, “Prayer changes things.” Again I think, “Isn’t it God who changes things?”

You might think I am splitting hairs and playing semantic games. But if we believe it is true, that the power to effect change is in the act of prayer itself and not the God to whom we pray, then it makes complete sense to have more people praying at one time. The more people, the more prayer; the more prayer, the more power. And that makes prayer some sort of cosmic transcendental force in itself.

Matthew 18:19-20 is often cited as the biblical basis for soliciting multitudes to pray.

“Again I say to you, that if 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. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

These verses come from a larger passage, addressing the procedures of church discipline to follow in the case of a sinning member. The reference in verses 19 and 20 to “two or three” reflects the “two or three witnesses” in verse 16. Deuteronomy 17:6-7 says the two or three witnesses of a sinner in the act are to be the first to cast stones, and here the contrasting command is for those same people to be the first to pray in seeking the restoration of the sinner. And as the shekinah glory of God was in the midst of His people in the Old Testament, Jesus, who is “God with us,” will be in our midst.

To misinterpret these verses as promising believers a blank cheque for anything they might agree to ask God for, no matter how sinful or foolish, violates the context of church discipline. It also denies the rest of Scripture, especially the sovereignty of God and the many commands for believers to submit to God’s will, not the other way around.

To believe that when more than one believer gathers to pray, some kind of magical power boost is automatically applied to our prayers is nonsense. Of course Jesus is present when two or three pray, but He is equally present when a believer prays alone.

It is wrong to assume that by having more of us engaged God is more obliged to answer. It is our faith, not our numbers that God responds to. “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much,” (James 5:16).

 

 
Steve Johnson