Jesus said in Matthew 6:6: “But you, when you pray—not if—enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret: and your Father which is in secret shall reward you openly.” This is how we as individuals pray to get results. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 18:1: “Men ought always to pray and not to faint”—not lose heart or fall into despair. There is no substitute for individual prayer.
I feel certain that we all understand our need for daily personal prayer, and that without it, we will surely faint. Moreover, this would include intercessory prayer for others as needs are made known to us. Often, we learn of someone’s sickness or difficulty, and we tell them that we will pray for them. But do we really? If I tell someone that in person, I stop right then and pray for them. If I answer them on social media that I will pray for them, I pray right then, and often I will actually type out a prayer in my message. Otherwise, I may forget.
The message featured this month from Brother Hardy’s classics is anchored in 2Chronicles 7:14: “If my people will humble themselves and pray…” This is something that is missing in many churches and the body of Christ in general: corporate prayer. There were breakouts here and there, but there needs to be a full scale prolonged revival of corporate prayer in America if we are going to see an outpouring of God’s presence leading to salvations and healings en masse.
The Power of Corporate Prayer
Prayer brings Humility:
“If my people will humble themselves and pray…” (2Chron. 7:14).
Prayer and Humility bring Unity:
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers…. And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple…. with gladness and singleness of heart” (Acts 2:42, 46).
Unity brings the Move of the Spirit:
“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
(This came after the baptism they received in the upper room on the day of Pentecost.)
Whenever God wants to do something in the earth, He sets people to praying. Prayer and fasting (with humility and unity) are the catalyst for every great move of God: “…And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles…. and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved” (Acts 2:43,47).
Read and study the first five chapters of the Book of Acts: Everything they did was in one mind and one accord. We preach deliverance, healing, signs and wonders, the gifts of the Spirit, and yet we do not see them active in most churches. It begins with spiritual hunger born of humility and unity.
My father, R.G. Hardy, was healed of a debilitating back injury before he got saved. My grandmother’s church was having a time of prayer and fasting, and they prayed over a prayer cloth, which my grandmother brought to the house, laid it on my father and prayed for him. Minutes later, he was miraculously healed. This was the result of corporate prayer and fasting.
Today, many are focused on pulpit preaching instead of the power of prayer to bring a move of God. While there are some who are specifically called to the ministry of intercessory prayer, and they do have a special anointing for this, we all—the whole church, are called to fervent prayer. Jesus said: “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Matthew 21:13).
Jesus said: “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2). One of the ways we labor is in prayer. In the NT, prayer is referred to as travail. There is no birthing without travail.
Jesus said right before His crucifixion: “A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world.” (John 16:21).
Come into the labor room of prayer and into the birthing room of travail. The Holy Spirit will meet you there.
Pray for Open Doors
“And pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel…. that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:19-20).
I am amazed Paul would need to ask people to pray for his utterance and boldness. I can’t imagine Paul ever running out of words! It tells me the opposition and pressure he faced were fierce. Sometimes when we feel strong opposition, we might think we are not being effective. This is when Satan is doing his best to resist us because our messages, our prayers are powerful and detrimental to him, and he wants to stop them.
Paul said, “I fought with the beasts of Ephesus.” Not natural beasts, but the demonic powers he came against at Ephesus were so powerful, it was like fighting lions. Later he wrote Timothy: “I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” (A dream of attack by a lion, tiger, wild cat, or wild dog, is God showing a demonic attack is coming against you, and He is preparing you for extreme warfare.)
Paul asked the Colossians to pray specifically: “that God will open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ” (Col.4:2-3). Previously he had for prayer for utterance and boldness in speaking, but now that he felt prepared, he needed an open door. He was entering an area of Greece that was rife with paganism, and just as the Prince of Persia hindered Daniel’s answer to prayer, Paul was wrestling with the Prince of Grecia who was trying to stop the Gospel from going to Greece and into Europe.
Prior to this, Paul had sought to go east into Bythinia, but “the Holy Ghost forbade them to preach the Word in Asia.” They tried to go a second time, but again, the Holy Spirit (not the devil) prevented them. The door to Asia was closed. After Paul obeyed and turned west, God gave him a dream of a man from Macedonia (Greece) saying, “Come over here and help us” (Acts 16:6-12).
When God tells you not to go somewhere, obey Him. He often may not tell you where to go until you have obeyed Him. If Paul had gone east anyway, he would have never met Luke, who joined his team in Macedonia. This means we would not have the wonderful record of the Book of Acts recorded by Luke. Moreover, because the Gospel went west, it made it to Great Britain, and from there to America. We are a Christian nation, because Paul obeyed God to go west.
The door of utterance opened to Macedonia, and Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: “For a great and effectual door is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1Corinthians 16:9). He had asked the Colossians to pray the door would open, and it did, but it came with many adversaries—opposition from Satan. He will not stand idly by, but will always seek to withstand the advancement of the Gospel.
Then Paul and Barnabas reported to their supporters: “And when they had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them. And how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.” Their prayers had bound the Prince of Grecia and opened the doors of evangelism to boldly preach the Gospel to the Gentile nations, because the Ephesus and Colossae churches heeded Paul’s invocation that corporate prayer be made. “You cannot cash the check of the move of the Holy Spirit until you have made the deposit of prayer.” (Pastor John Kilpatrick)
“The effectual [Greek: energero = energy] fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:6). How much more when we come together in corporate prayer? The energy of this type of prayer increases exponentially.
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