Unity and Answers to Prayer

Jesus’ promises of answered prayer are directly tied to our unity. Answered prayer does not depend on our goodness or qualifications. The prayers God has promised to answer are those made under his authority, in love, for the good of the whole Church.

Jesus’ promises of answered prayer are also directly tied to our oneness. For example, the oft-quoted promise of Matthew 18:19-20 is given in the context of church discipline and reconciliation of offenses—if neither personal pleas nor the intervention of the church brings about reconciliation of an offense between believers, then God promises to hear and answer the prayer of any “two of you” who “agree on earth about anything they may ask.”¹ What Jesus is saying is that, once direct approaches to reconciliation have failed, if any two believers involved in the situation can see what needs to change to restore unity and agree in prayer about it, God will do it, because He places a great value on our unity (which is the subject of the entire passage). “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”²

            Jesus’ promises of answered prayer in John 14 and 15 are also dependent on our participation in the oneness of the Body. This is most clearly evident in the statement of the promise in John 15:7(KJV; compare vv. 7-12 Greek): “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” I have here used the King James because it clearly—and accurately—shows that the promise is directed, not to the singular “you,” but to the plural “ye.” Jesus follows this promise with an explanation that we must continue in His love (v. 9) and that we continue in His love by keeping His commandments (v. 10). Jesus’ commandments are His words that must live in us for the promise of verse 7 to be effective. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”³ The promise of answered prayer in John 14:13-14 likewise belongs only to those who believe in Jesus and keep his commandment, as has already been shown, and is stated in the second person plural. Compare and contrast, John 14:10-12, in which individual (singular) faith in Jesus transitions into collective (plural) prayer in his name. Moreover, in these verses, Jesus only promises to do things that are asked in His name—for His purpose, under His authority.

As James 4 teaches, strife in the church, fights and quarrels among us, arise from the lusts and desires that do battle within each of us. Therefore, when we ask God to give us things to spend on our own pleasures, to help us have what we want, without regard to the effect of our requests on the Body, we ask in error (“amiss”), with wrong motives, and God will not grant our requests.⁴ Note that God does not ask us be sinless, or even “good,” before he will hear and answer–in the parable in Luke 18:10-14, he heard the repentant tax collector rather than the proud Pharisee. It depends on the source of our prayers and our motives rather than our qualifications. The prayers God has promised to answer are those made under His authority, in love, for the good of the whole Church.

            Acts contains several outstanding examples of unified prayers for the needs of the Body that were answered in miraculous ways. In Acts 4:23-24, Peter and John reported to the assembly the threats the Sanhedrin had made. The church responded by praying “with one accord,” recognizing the threats that had been made and that God had already written that the threats were futile, and then making their request:

 O Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them,  who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said,

‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
And the peoples devise futile things?
‘The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’

For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.

Acts 4:24-30 (NASB).

The first result of this unified prayer was that the place they were meeting was shaken, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak the Word of God with boldness.⁵ The second result of this prayer was that the church actually began to experience their oneness in a new way—“they were of one heart and of one mind”—and to act in conformity with that oneness through complete unselfishness toward each other:

No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

Acts 4:32.

When the Jerusalem Church began to speak the Word with boldness, to experience their oneness, and to live out their oneness through unselfish sharing with each other, Luke records that the end result was that the apostles gave witness of the resurrection “with great power” and that “abundant grace was upon them all.”⁶ But these things—right prayer, oneness, unselfish sharing, boldness, grace and power—always go together.