Contemporary Application of Agreeing in Prayer
The following illustration of agreeing in prayer is told by R. L. Brandt:
Upon graduating from Bible college, I returned to my home community and learned that the church I had attended was in great turmoil. A preacher had come to the church representing himself to be an Assemblies of God minister. However, after having won the hearts of numbers of people, he left the church and started several small churches in the surrounding area. Among those who joined forces with him were my parents and numbers of my friends. As a result of all this, the young people were caught in the crossfire of controversy.
I felt God’s call to the ministry, but in the midst of the prevailing confusion I found it difficult to get started. I held a series of services in my own country schoolhouse where my father had been converted. I assisted a friend in pioneering a church for a few months and did some evangelizing, but no door seemed to open for permanent ministry. In the meantime I had become a licensed minister of the Assemblies of God.
Finally, after a whole year had passed, the independent preacher came to me offering an opportunity to be his assistant. It appeared to be an open door, and my parents were elated, feeling this was God’s leading for me. However, I was beset with uncertainty. I had pledged my loyalty to my credentialing church, but here was a wide-open door to work with an independent when so far no opportunity had come from the group I was affiliated with. What should I do? I honestly did not know, even though deep in my heart I wanted God’s will.
In this confused frame of mind, I attended the Assemblies of God district council. While there I was asked to meet with the district officiary for the purpose of declaring my intent regarding future ministry. Yet how could I declare my intent when I did not know how to interpret my own circumstances? The evening prior to my scheduled meeting with the district board, I decided I must have counsel. So I requested a meeting with a pastor who was from my home church; his parents, like mine, were also supporters of the independent preacher. If anyone could give me guidance, I reasoned, surely this man who knew the circumstances well would be my most likely source of help.
Following the evening session of the district council, we met in his car, overlooking the lake of the campgrounds, and I shared my heart with him. For perhaps two hours we talked, but rather than finding a solution, it seemed the more we talked the further I was from knowing what decisions to make. Just when we seemed to have exhausted all of our abilities to resolved the matter, a most remarkable thing happened. Suddenly, apart from any decision to pray, or to agree in prayer, we found ourselves praying in an unusual fashion. We were carried along by the Spirit in supplication and intercession in a most harmonious fashion. Our hearts were knit together over a single issue: the will of God for my life and ministry. This rather strange new way of praying went on into the night, well beyond midnight.
Then as suddenly as we had been launched into the praying, so suddenly a Presence invaded the car, and in my spirit I heard the message, Your prayer is heard. The matter is cared for. I cannot articulate the sense of wonder that filled me. Even so, I did not know yet what decision to make, but now I did not need to know, for I knew God’s will would be done. It was 1:30 A.M. when I finally got to my room for the night. The next morning I met the friend whom I had prayed with and told him I felt no burden to pray further over my concern. He agreed.
From that day forward a series of events transpired which were beyond my doing and amazed several people who knew my situation. Within a week I was on my way to a city to pioneer an Assemblies of God church. En route, I passed by my parents’ farm and found them somewhat disappointed at the turn of events. They thought surely I must have missed God’s will; but in the final analysis, each believer must find God’s will for himself. For weeks following my arrival in the new community I was in heavenly places in my spirit.
Then I heard a strange thing: The independent preacher from my parents’ church, who had invited me to join him, had an unhappy clash with some of his people and left the community, never to return. Had I elected to go with him, I fear my hopes for future ministry might have been forever ended. But because two of us had agreed concerning what we asked of God, I was providentially spared; since that crossroad’s experience I have now been in the Assemblies of God ministry for over half a century, having served as pastor, district superintendent, national home missions secretary, and executive presbyter. The Lord is faithful to answer those who ask His leading in spirit-agreement with another believer.