BACK to BASICS - Prayer

-By: Askel Dela Cruz, 

In Matthew 18:19-20, our Lord 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. For where two of three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

This is corporate prayer. And the early Church always prayed together. After Jesus Christ was taken up to the heavens, they remained in fellowship and prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem. Until the day of Pentecost came and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.


Being disciples of Christ, we need and are required to pray. The early disciples have regular times of prayer together. Peter and John regularly prayed in the temple in a specified time. They continue praying together daily. (Acts 2:46). They have a specified place to pray - the temple.


Corporate and united prayer is not only physical closeness or being in one place or saying one kind and form of prayer. Apostle Paul wrote,

"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting" - 1 Timothy 2:8

Jesus illustrated this united prayer in Matthew 5:23-24,

"Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."

Being united in prayer means we have a harmonious relationship with each other. We come to God as one body and our voice lifted to God as one.

If the prayer of one righteous man is effective, imagine what a united prayer of the Church can produce. Thus, in the present day Church we gather every morning to pray together. And the continued growth of the Church is a manifestation of our united prayer.