So far in this series, we've looked at prayers for ourselves, for which we must find the scriptures to stand on, we must have faith, and we must maintain our primary focus on the Lord. But how does this apply when we are praying for other people? We can't make others do or believe anything. God won't violate our free will, and we can't violate the free will of others in prayer, either. So how does this work?
It depends upon the context.
The default position is that we should be praying for all people at all times (1 Tim 2:1-6, Eph 6:18), as well as for the cities we live in (Jer 29:7). Just as for ourselves, this gives God "legal" entry into the affairs of men, so that He can intervene and do what He wants to do on the earth. The Old Testament priestly blessing was, “'The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace’” (Numbers 6:23-27). This was what God wanted to do for the children of Israel, and the priests were to invoke this, to give Him permission on earth to do it.
In the New Testament, Jesus made this explicit in Matthew 16:19, and also in Matthew 18:18, when he said to his disciples, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." The spiritual realm is the greater reality compared to the physical. Paul tells us that "we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor 4:18). We are to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7), using our position of authority in heavenly places through Jesus to change what we see here and conform it to the will of the Father in prayer.
Some examples of effective prayer of one individual for others in scripture:
- In Job 42, God told Job to pray for his friends, so that God could forgive their sin rather than punish them for it (Job 42:8). Clearly this was already God's will, but God still told him to pray for it.
- In Numbers 11, the Israelites disobeyed God and triggered the 'cursing' side of the covenant laid out in the Torah, and consolidated in Deuteronomy 28. But when the people cried out to Moses, and Moses interceded to God for them, the curse stopped (Numbers 11:1-2). God needed a man to ask Him.
- In a similar story, Miriam disobeyed God and triggered the 'curse,' (which now no longer applies to us, thanks to Jesus!), and Moses had to pray for her to be healed as well (Numbers 12:13).
- Moses also interceded for the Israelites after the incident of the golden calf (Ex 32:31-32), so that they would not be destroyed.
- Jesus prayed that Peter's faith would not fail, even before Peter denied him. Because of this, Jesus was confident that Peter would return to the disciples even after he'd stumbled (Luke 22:32). The faith involved was still Peter's, but somehow Jesus' prayer enabled Peter's faith to be revived.
- Paul believed that the prayers of his parishioners would occasion his deliverance, favor, and open doors of opportunity for him that might otherwise have been shut without them (Phil 1:19, 1:22, 2 Cor 1:11).
- Samuel the prophet acknowledged that it was actually a sin to fail to pray for his people. 1Sa 12:23 "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way."
We pray for others, as individuals, for the same reason that we pray for ourselves: so that God can do what He wants to do on the earth.
How does the prayer of agreement fit into this? Jesus said in Matthew 18:19: "Again, 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." Why do we need anybody else to agree with us; can't we simply ask and receive all on our own?
I don't totally understand how this works, but I think it's similar to what Solomon said in Ecc 4:12: "a threefold cord is not quickly broken," or to the story of Aaron and Hur physically holding up Moses' arms when he got tired, to ensure that the Israelites achieved victory in battle (Ex 17:8-16). It's why we need the body of Christ to come around us, to bear one anothers' (crushing) burdens, even though we should each carry our own (light) loads (Gal 6:2, 5). It's very possible for one person alone to grow heartsick rather than patient in a long wait (Prov 13:12); that's why we need others to "hold up our arms" in prayer and encouragement. When our own faith is strong, perhaps (this is my speculation), the prayer of agreement is less necessary. It's when we are losing strength or growing heartsick, that the prayer of agreement becomes important.
This may be why James tells us that if we're sick, we should ask the elders of the church to anoint us with oil (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) and pray over us, to receive healing (James 5:14). The assumption is that the church elders are strong in faith, as they should be. The request itself would constitute an act of faith on the part of the person asking; the elders in this example would simply be in agreement. There are many examples of people receiving healing on their own faith alone (Mark 5:34, Luke 17:19, Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 10:46-52), so this isn't always necessary--but sometimes it is. When we are weak, God gave us each other, so that others who aren't as weak, frustrated, or discouraged as we are can join their faith with ours, and "hold up our arms," when they would otherwise fall. When the father of the demonized boy asked Jesus if He could help the boy, Jesus replied that all things are possible when one has faith (Mark 9:23). The father claimed to have faith, but then immediately cried out "Help me believe!" Jesus did not rebuke him for this, but gave him the help requested--and did heal the boy.
The prayer of agreement doesn't always have to come into play in a place of weakness, though. This may also be the positive side to what God observed of the people who built the Tower of Babel: "indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them" (Gen 11:6). In other words, this is just a principle of the way God set up the world, and in itself, the law is neutral: if one has power, the combined strength of many is exponentially more so. As Moses wrote of the Israelites in Lev 26:8: "Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight." When we're around others who are strong, we become that much stronger ourselves. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Prov 27:17). I suspect this is also why we are admonished to not forsake assembling together with other believers (Hebrews 10:25). The assumption is that we are assembling with those who are in agreement. Our stronger faith strengthens those with a weak faith in a particular area, while our weaker faith is strengthened by others whose faith is stronger in another area in turn.
But this also works in reverse--if those around you are not in faith, it's more likely that they will influence you with their unbelief than that you will influence them with your faith (Gal 5:9, 1 Cor 15:33). (So don't approach just anybody for agreement in prayer; be sure you are agreeing on the right things!)
There is one exception to the rule of intercession, and it falls under the category of church discipline.
In Matthew 18:18, when Jesus said, "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven," He was talking about church discipline. He also said in John 20:23, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Since scripture elsewhere makes it quite clear that only God can forgive sins (Luke 5:21), this must mean something different. We know that there are both spiritual and natural consequences for sins; Jesus took the sins of the whole world and paid for them on the cross from a spiritual standpoint (1 John 2:2), but we each must appropriate that to ourselves by faith in Him (Romans 10:9). Regardless, that covers only the spiritual consequences; the natural consequences remain, as sin can still give "place" in our lives to Satan (Eph 4:27), allowing him to influence us rather than the Holy Spirit. So the only thing that makes sense is that when Jesus spoke of binding and loosing, remitting or retaining the sins of others, He meant that when we sin, we're giving Satan an inroad into our lives--but through prayer, we can 'bind' Satan from bringing the natural consequences of others' sins against them.
So while another person may continue to choose to sin, and we can't make them do otherwise, we can use our prayers to protect them from the consequences of those sins. That is a good idea only to a point, though. Negative consequences for our actions teach us not to do something bad in the future. Touch a hot stove, and you'll burn your hand, and learn never to do that again. Overdraw your account, and you'll have no money for things when you truly need them, etc. But if someone else rescues you from the consequences of your poor choices (or from the law of sowing and reaping, Galatians 6:7) repeatedly, you'll never learn to do anything differently, and will continue to make the same poor choices. You'll never grow up. That's why in 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul wrote of church members engaging in sexual immorality, "deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." They deliver him to Satan by withdrawing their intercessory prayers to protect him from the natural consequences of his actions. Paul recommended this same course of action against blasphemers in 1 Tim 1:19-20. We see in 2 Cor 2:6-11 that this had its intended effect: some of those who were sinning repented, and Paul instructed the church to them receive him back into fellowship, so that Satan would not be able take advantage of the situation. Only if the person does not repent, are we to "retain" their sins unto them (John 20:23)--which is the same as turning them over to Satan (1 Cor 5:5). The hope is that they will eventually learn from the natural consequences of their choices, and come back to the Lord and into fellowship. Our free will allows us to make our choices, but we can't always choose the results of those choices.
The implication here is that if we don't pray for others' protection against Satan's attacks, out of laziness rather than a deliberate choice, we are essentially turning them over to Satan. Neglecting intercessory prayer should be the exception, and not the rule.
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