The Power of Corporate Prayer

During a sermon series at V1 Church titled “Upper Room,” several leaders taught on the importance of prayer in a Christian's life. In this segment of the series, various leaders focused on the critical role of corporate prayer within the church and in the lives of believers. Pastor Eddie Perez shared the necessity of corporate prayer as it is fundamental in Christian gatherings.

The Purpose and Nature of Prayer

Unfortunately, in many churches in America, the prayer meetings are often among the least attended church activities. The definition of corporate prayer, according to the V1 Church campus NY pastor, is “believers coming together in unity for the purpose of glorifying God.”

Communication with God, both corporately and privately, is very important. The nature of prayer derives from the nature of God. Prayer isn't made so that God can figure out what we need; He already knows what we need, prayer expresses our trust in God.

Too many times, corporate prayer feels mundane and dead even to the point where it feels pharisaical, where hypocrites are praying repetitive prayers. That, however, perverts the true meaning of piety. Corporate prayer is not a place of attraction, it's a place of necessity.

In Matthew 6, Jesus said that repeated prayers without thinking are like “babbling pagans.” Prayer is not for God to discover our needs; He already knows them, but it is to express our trust in Him. Pastor Eddie shared that true prayer is grounded in the "nature of God," not personal feelings. Corporate prayer should not just be about one's needs, but really about glorifying Him.

“God gets corporate glory when there is corporate asking,” The New York minister added. “We are all called to submit our lives to God but we are also called to submit our words to Him.”

Corporate Askings

In the Old Testament, there were many moves of corporate prayer: (Israel, Jehoshaphat, Solomon, David, Ezra). In the New Testament, we see the early church, as depicted in the book of Acts, also presented as a model of corporate prayer. They were consistently "found in a place of prayer" before and after receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 12:12).

The Lord's Prayer, shared by Jesus, is the ultimate example of prayer in both the Gospel of Matthew (6:9–13) and the Gospel of Luke (11:2–4). That prayer is likewise shared in a corporate tense: “Give us this day our daily bread,” He beckons.

There's a togetherness that happens when people pray together. Every aspect of the Christian’s life was intended to live together.

The diminishing participation in prayer meetings in the modern day church is a deviation from the biblical norm.

"The early Church in the book of Acts we see right before when they were waiting for Jesus to come, they were found in a place of prayer that they were meeting together and they were praying. Prayer always precedes revival, prayer always precedes a move of God," Pastor Eddie noted.

In 1806 was the birth of the haystack prayer meetings. It was formed by a group of students who would regularly pray day in and day out. On one particular occasion, there was a severe thunderstorm, and the students found refuge in a haystack. While in the haystack, they felt the need to pray even more. That experience called them to do missionary work. Historians mark that moment as the start of the American foreign missionary movement. As a result of that haystack prayer, hundreds of thousands of missionaries today go and spread the gospel to the under evangelized areas in the world.

Unity In Corporate Prayer

Division hinders prayer and unity. Praying together helps train believers' desires and fosters faith, hope, and love collectively. Building a local church and fostering community involves praying together, even with those who might seem like enemies.

Unity in prayer is a way to fulfill the command in Ephesians 4:3 to "keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of Peace." Unity in prayer removes the focus from the individual ("individualistic attention") and directs glory to God.

"There is no genuine corporate prayer without unity and there is no real unity without corporate prayer. You know why we get so much division is because we don't pray enough together, imagine a church that prays together stays together," Pastor Eddie assured.

The Apostle Paul made an appeal to the church in Corinth for them to all agree with one another that there be no divisions among them. That posture would make them perfectly united in mind and thought (1 Corinthians 1:10). Believers are to be in one spirit and one mind.

Real unity is fostered in corporate prayer, we get so much division because we do not pray together.

Pastor Eddie listed 4 reasons why corporate prayer is so important:

1. It advances God's kingdom in the face of opposition.
   In Acts 12, we see the believers earnestly prayed for Peter when Herod was about to put him on trial. His situation seemed impossible, but then the church began to pray earnestly, and at that moment the chains fell off of Peter and he was set free.

2. Corporate prayer also imparts wisdom and direction.
   God gives wisdom generously to those who ask. After Judas betrayed Christ and ended his life. The remaining disciples prayed together to replace Judas in James 1:5.

3. Corporate prayer increases our dependence and glorifies God.
   Psalm 50:15 instructs believers to call on God in times of trouble. God gets the glory when He’s given the opportunity to answer prayers. We must give Him the opportunity to answer our prayers and quit trying to do things on our own.

4. Our unity glorifies God.
   Being united in prayer honors God and reflects His image in humanity (Imago Dei). We were made to glorify God. In Ephesians 4:6, Paul encourages the church to keep the unity, and we do that by praying together.

Pastor Eddie ended by sharing a quote by Charles Spurgeon:

“We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general til the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.”
—Charles H. Spurgeon

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About the Author

Jeannie Ortega Law is a chart-topping singer, evangelist, media personality and author from New York City.  She can be reached on social media: @JeannieOrtega or emailed at Info@JeannieO.com

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