I was thinking about unity this week as I prepared to lead our online study group through Chapter 8 of my book Prayer Matters.
God Himself consists of relationships. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all perfectly one. Our Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as being one god existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons sharing one essence. That triune God created a universe that is entirely made up of interdependent relationships. Every part of nature needs another part in order to exist.
In the same way, the creation of man consisted of two beings: male and female, who were created together as a reflection of the image of God (Genesis 1:27), two beings in a perfectly harmonious relationship of complementing physical, emotional, and mental make-up. Their purpose was to live in dependence on God and interdependence on each other.
Then sin entered the human race, and man became self-oriented, self-exalting, and self-sufficient. Instead of worship, love, and dependence on God, he exalted himself, loved himself, and became independent. Instead of interdependence as a couple, competition and strife set in.
You know how the story unfolds from there.
Then Christ came and with Him forgiveness and redemption through His death and resurrection. Now, man can enter once more into a relationship of loving and worshipful dependence on God. And everyone who places His faith in Christ enters into a global Body of believers (1 Corinthians 12:13), that exists in interdependence with one another just like a human body does (1 Corinthians 12:14-27). Entered through one baptism, connected through one Spirit, in worship and service of one Father. People reconciled to the Father and to each other (Ephesians 2:14-21).
A people in unity.
A unity that Jesus prayed for on the eve of His suffering and death (John 17). “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (vs. 21) “…That they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me.” (vs. 23)
God prizes unity because it reflects the relationship He has within Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The unity we were drafted into when we became members of the Body of Christ has been under constant attack from an enemy who loves to divide and conquer. For that reason alone, it is essential that Christians come together in prayer. Satan fears united prayer because he knows the power that it has even better than we do. Frankly, in many Christian circles, the power of coming together in united prayer lies forgotten and untouched. Very few churches have prayer meetings anymore, and when they do, only a handful attend. Where is the hell-busting, mountain-moving, kingdom-advancing, demon-slaying united prayer of His people?
When the believers of the early church came together to lift their voice in prayer as one (Acts 4:23-31), “the place in which they were praying was shaken, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (vs. 31).
United prayer makes us take our eyes off each other and our differences and cast them unto God. Instead of standing face to face, we stand shoulder to shoulder. It puts into operation the synergy of faith implied in Matthew 18:19, whereby the faith of two does not just double the faith of one, it more than quadruples it!
I pray for the awakening of the sleeping giant of the American church and its millions to the power of united prayer. Imagine what could happen in our land, and around the world, if we set about the business of enduring intercessory prayer, uniting our voices as one!