Now let us look briefly at another one of the four phrases, the phrase “the church.” The prayer that God particularly delights to answer is united prayer. There is power in the prayer of a single individual, and the prayer of individuals has wrought great things, but there is far greater power in united prayer. Our Lord Jesus taught this same great truth in Matthew 18:19, 20, “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” God delights in the unity of His people, and He does everything in His power to promote that unity, and so He especially honors unity in prayer. There is power in the prayer of one true believer: there is far more power in the united prayer of two, and greater power in the united prayer of still more.
But it must be real unity. This comes out in the exact words our Lord uses. He says, “If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” It is one of the most frequently misquoted and most constantly abused promises in the whole Bible. It is often quoted as if it read this way, “If two of you on earth agree to ask anything, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” But it actually reads, “If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” Someone may say, “I do not see any essential difference.” Let me explain it to you. Someone else has a burden on his heart, he comes to you and asks you to unite with him in praying for deliverance and you consent, and you both pray for it. Now you are “agreed” in praying, but you are not agreed at all “about anything” you ask. He asks for it because he intensely desires it; you ask for it simply because he asks you to ask for it. You are not at all agreed “about anything” you ask. But when God, by His Holy Spirit, puts the same burden on two hearts, and they thus in the unity of the Spirit pray for the same thing, there is not power enough on earth or in hell to keep them from getting it. Our Heavenly Father will do for them the thing that they ask.