A Call to Prayer: They All Prayed Continually in Faith and with One Accord
Though we may all pray continually in faith, not much can be achieved until we are united one with another and with Christ, the Head of the Church.
And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. (Acts 1:13-14, KJV)
And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4, KJV)
The disciples in the upper room after the ascension of the Lord, without exception, prayed continually in faith until the Holy Spirit came upon them on the day of Pentecost. There was something unique about their gathering to pray, which is the focus of this instalment.
They all prayed continuously in faith and with one accord
When we speak of praying with one accord, we are saying that we must be of the same mind with one another on the one hand and, most importantly, be of the same mind with Christ on the other hand. It is not enough that we are of one mind with one another, which is a good thing, but we must also be with Christ of the same mind! To be of one mind is to be of the same purpose—in this case, the purpose of God.
After the Holy Spirit had come upon the praying disciples in the upper room, Peter and John went to the temple to pray. But they never got to do so because they made a man born lame walk and, in the process, preached Christ to the people (Acts 3); this led to the salvation of about five thousand souls (Acts 4:4)! And because Peter and John preached Christ to the people, they were arrested. The next day, they were brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious council. When the Sanhedrin could not deny that a notable miracle in the name of Jesus had indeed occurred, Peter and John were let go but sternly warned not to preach in the name of Jesus again. (Acts 4:5-22)
Peter and John returned to their fold, reporting the matter to the brethren, and they all prayed to God, asking for His intervention. It is instructive that they did not call for intervention from any person in authority—not a Senator, Governor, President, a foreign nation, or the United Nations. The Bible narrated this prayer session thus:
And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is (Acts 4:24, KJV)
What is significant about this narration is that they all lifted their 'voice', not' voices'! This singleness of voice is confirmed by the phrase 'with one accord'! In other words, they were not praying with discordant but one voice! They were praying in harmony, with the same purpose, and in agreement! This kind of concerted prayer generates an impactful and instant response from heaven. The Bible documented heaven's response thus:
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 spake the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31, KJV)
One wonders why we are not seeing such an earth-quaking impact in our prayers today. Is it possible that we are not praying with one accord? Are we praying with discordant voices? Is the church unable to speak with one voice? Are we individually trying to show off to the detriment of the entire body? What is the way forward? Let us now examine some issues.
The prayer of agreement
The Lord Jesus said,
"… 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." (Matthew 18:19, KJV)
This Scripture verse is usually referred to as the "prayer of agreement". The Lord emphatically states in this passage that if there is an agreement as touching ANYTHING that we pray to God about, it SHALL be done! Arriving at such an agreement can be challenging, but it is achievable if our hearts are united with the Holy Spirit.
The prayer of agreement is predicated on surrendering our wills to the will of God. Without this surrender, we cannot pray in agreement! We must agree with heaven; otherwise, it is not a prayer of agreement.
The unity of the body
There must be unity among us in the body of Christ, and there must be unity between us—the body of Christ—and Christ Himself, the Head of the body. Can you imagine a situation in which the brain says, "We need to make a right turn now", but the feet decide to make a left turn fifteen minutes later? Or, a situation where the brain processes what it has received from the eyes as an imminent danger, but the eyes tell the other parts of the body that it is not as bad as the brain is making it to be! That is confusion!
The decision-maker of the body is Christ—the Head of the Church—and we—the body—must follow His decision if we are to see impactful results. The unity of the body of Christ does not mean agreeing on something that we all like. Rather, we are to agree with Christ, the Head of the body! The Psalmist said:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. (Psalms 133:1-3, KJV)
When we are united with Christ, the blessing of God comes upon the body, and every single person receives it. When the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, the Bible says,
they were all with one accord in one place. …. there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4, KJV)
Because they were in one accord and in the same place, which can be understood as being of the same mind and purpose, so, when the Holy Spirit fell, He came on every single one of them—none was left out—because they were united in purpose and of the same mind! So, it is good for brothers to dwell together in unity because God commands His blessing where there is unity, not where there is division, strife, envy, etc.
After Joseph had revealed himself to his brothers and sent them back to fetch their father, Jacob, he told them not to quarrel with one another on the way (Genesis 45:24). God's word to the Church is that we must stop fighting ourselves or try upstaging others. There will be churches in varying degrees of growth and development. Churches are the body of Christ individually and collectively.
Unity and agreement is the key to unlimited results in prayer
In Genesis 11:1-9, God spoke about the unity of the people at Babel and how, by that unity, they would achieve whatever they desired. The people were of the same tongue and purpose. God had determined that men would scatter and live all over the earth and have dominion, replenish, and subdue it (Genesis 1:26-28). But the people did not want to be scattered; rather, they wanted to stay together.
They may have thought that their desire to stay together was good, and because they were all united in that purpose, contrary to God's desire, God admitted that nothing would stop them except Him, and He did! God stopped their progression because it was contrary to His will. But if it had been according to God's will, He would have given them accelerated progression in what they were doing!
Nothing shall be unattainable or unachievable by us if we are united with one another and Christ. If the body of Christ were united in preaching the pure doctrines of God from the Bible, nobody can succeed in withstanding the truth to dissuade the believer.
Indeed, Satan cannot scatter us when we are united with God—that is if we all agree to walk with God! Satan looks for a weak link in the body and poisons their mind to walk contrary to the Head, Christ. Satan can create disaffection in the body where there is none, and suddenly, people will become disconcerted; this can end the body's bond of unity!
Ensuring the body remains united
To ensure that the body remains united, every believer must love other believers and hope the best for every single one (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). And such is the love Jesus commanded (John 13:34-35).
When the world sees the bond of love and unity among Christians, they will say, as Tertullian, a Second Century Father of the Faith (imagined pagans looking at Christians of his day and saying),
Not only is our unity to be among ourselves, but also with God. God asks, through the prophet Amos:
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3, KJV)
The 'two' referred to here are God as one party and Christians as the other. Can we indeed walk together with God if we are not agreed with Him? In such an agreement or union, God is the senior partner! He does not have to agree with us; we must agree with Him if the partnership is to work and be effective.
Many Christians try to come up with a vision or plan and then ask God to agree with it. Well, that is not how it works. God has His mission and vision, which He gives to us. We must agree with and subscribe to His mission and vision, if God must be with us. Such an agreement enables us to achieve the seemingly unachievable.
What are we praying in one accord about?
We are not being called to pray for just anything in one accord, but the kingdom and will of God.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10, KJV)
In asking us to pray as above, Jesus calls us to partner with God daily to ensure His kingdom and will are established on the earth. Jesus intends that we ask God to reign supreme in human hearts and that His will prevail on the earth rather than human desires.
Crucially, we are to continually pray with one accord on issues that God, by His Spirit, reveals to us. Therefore, in our praying, we must pray the mind of God through, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Such prayers yield powerful results (1 John 5:14-15).
Let us not confuse 'mutual agreement' with 'one accord'
A man and his wife is the closest bond of any relationship outside our bond with God. Unfortunately, when Ananias, with his wife's, Sapphira's consent, agreed to lie about the amount they sold their property for, that agreement, though mutual, did not accord with the Holy Spirit. They were found out and killed by Him (Acts 5:1-10).
We must never confuse the mutual agreement between two or more persons with being an agreement with God!. Many Christians erroneously believe that if they agree with one another, it qualifies as being in one accord with God. Nothing can be further from the truth! Agreeing with others is only one part of 'one accord'; agreeing with God is the other.
Even if one million people agree to do something, it does not qualify as being in 'one accord' if God is not a part of such an agreement! Such a mutual agreement occurred at Babel—it excluded God! Also, Ananias and Sapphira's mutual understanding or agreement was contrary to God! And since God was not a party to those agreements, He came down hard on those who presumed to act as though He was!
We must, therefore, not presume that because the Christians in a congregation have agreed to do something, God is automatically subscribed to what they want to do. If not in accord with God, such an agreement is doomed to fail! We must agree with God for it to be 'one accord'!
Conclusion
So, yes, we must all pray continuously in faith. But we must also be of the same mind and purpose with God, who has the plan. Furthermore, we must pray that divine plan into existence. So, as the church, let us all pray in faith and one accord, and as God responds to our prayers, the earth should quake once again!
Shalom.