As we move into a New Year as followers of Jesus Christ, presumably we want to see our lives make a greater impact for Him and our world. One of the most powerful,impactful things we can give ourselves to is praying with others for the changes we want to see in our lives, communities, and nations. I have been encouraged and stimulated by rereading a great classic on corporate prayer that I would like to share with you.

Rosalind Rinker, who served in China as a missionary from 1926 to 1940, wrote a provocative reflection on corporate prayer based on her own experience of learning to pray with others. She found herself bored and annoyed by the way prayer meetings were conducted each Friday night as the missionaries gathered to intercede. People would go on and on, touring the world in their praying, while other participants like her would try to stay focused but would wander mentally as they listened to what amounted to prayer orations.

A friend of hers and she later discovered the power of “conversational prayer” when two or more focus on the actual presence of Jesus Christ with them according to His promise in Matthew 28:20- that He would be with us “always”. Counting on His presence, they began to learn to speak to Him from the heart as one who was very much a part of their conversation and wanted to be included. They discovered that they did not need to use flowery, well thought out, theologically correct expressions, but rather like close friends would express their heart desires, questions, and concerns in natural, brief sentences, each giving attention to one subject at a time and then moving on to another when that subject had been covered enough.

Rinker opens her book with these words:

“Group prayer has lost its meaning for many of us, so that any excuse is a good excuse for not going to a prayer meeting. Praying conversationally (that is praying back and forth on a single subject until a new one is introduced by the Spirit) makes prayer such a natural means of “spiritual togetherness” that the healing love of God touches us all as we are in His presence. Meeting the Lord in this way brings us to the anticipated realization of what it means to be consciously with Him, and to belong to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.” (p.10)

Here are some vital principles that can be derived from Rinker’s book,Prayer: How to Have a Conversation with God, that will make our times of prayer with others much more lively and exciting:

• Count on the actual presence of the Trinity-Father, Son and Holy Spirit- when you come together to pray with others. Let the Triune God prompt you as to the things you should focus on together.
• Don’t make prayer speeches but talk things over with the Lord back and forth, including Him in it as we do in human conversation.
• Speak with the simplicity of a child talking to His Father. It is not the exact words but the heart attitude that God is attentive to.
• Be aware of the others in this prayer conversation who have their own heart perspectives to share. Don’t pray a monologue (you can do that when you are alone) but let everyone pray what they are being led to articulate by the leading of the Spirit.
• Make use of sentence prayers, expressing just one angle of a subject. God knows more about the subject already, far more than we will ever understand anyway!“Now remember the Lord is here. We are speaking to him. Pray in short sentences and then let someone else have a chance. He will guide us.” (p.26)
• Keep focused on the same subject, taking turns to pray about it until there is a sense of completion and the Spirit nudges you to move on to another issue.
• Be in tune with when you should jump in and pray, being patient and letting other members of His Body play their part, trusting God to move them to bring out other aspects that should be addressed.
• “We don’t learn how to pray in six easy lessons, we learn to pray by praying… Go ahead and stumble in your prayers, go ahead and cry. Out of your very weakness your brother is made strong. Out of your own weakness you are made strong by Christ. Out of the inadequacy of your prayer, the inability to express yourself, the shame of your tears, and the urgency of your need, you meet the Savior who understands you. You are comforted and your brother is strengthened.” (p.47, 49)
• Some things we can ask for by ourselves. Other things, she writes, are like great mountains and we need the faith and prayer of others to help us when we pray. “If two of you agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever (anything and everything) they ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18-20, Amplified) (p. 63)
• “Have faith in the One who is able to answer… God has given us power over our imaginations, so that by the positive use of that imagination, we can picture ourselves receiving the answer. This is the way to believe in one’s heart, and to believe that what one has asked for, he will receive.” (p.73)

Rinker concludes her short but profound exploration of united prayer in this way:“After all, prayer is conversing with God, and to converse with someone we must be with that person. And in His presence is fullness of joy.” (p. 88)

If I may add to what Ms. Rinker has said, we in the IPC have also found how powerful, even history-changing, such united prayer orchestrated by the Holy Spirit can be. Let us all go deeper in this wonderful adventure of conversing with the Lord together and through united prayer watch Him bring His transformation into our hurting, problematic world!

John Robb
IPC Chairman
More:Prayer:How to Have a Conversation with God (Zondervan Publishing House, 1959)