At my church, we have a team that prays for requests from the congregation, whether e-mailed to us, phoned in to the church, or relayed through a staff member, etc. As a member of this team, I'm often fascinated that we receive requests from people who have no relationship at all to our church - not even a second-cousin's-close-friend's-child type of relationship.
This fascinates me because it reveals a concept of prayer that I struggle with a bit, and I'd love some perspective on this.
Does God answer prayer based on how many people are praying? Is there some threshold that He's looking for in order to capture his attention? Is his will influenced by numbers?
I'm not talking here about our larger-scale prayer over kingdom issues such as revival in our country, repentance of corporate sin, etc. There's ample Biblical evidence that God hears and responds to this sort of prayer. I'm talking instead about prayer for a specific individual.
It would never occur to me to ask a complete stranger to pray for me. I often ask friends and family to pray for me over one situation or another, and our relationship makes that request a logical one in my mind. I reciprocate by praying for them.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with requesting and receiving prayer from others who may not have a close relationship. We have groups here on Pray! Network who do that, and I have no problem with that at all. But there's a connection between us on the Network that to me makes it somewhat logical that one of us would ask others for prayer. There's encouragement in being part of a group that's praying for each other, even if we won't ever meet in person this side of heaven.
But when it comes to throwing out prayer requests randomly to groups of unconnected people, I'm just curious about the philosophy of prayer that's behind that.
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I don’t understand why some people "throw-out" prayer requests randomly to groups of "unconnected people" or what the philosophy of prayer that's behind that. I simply believe that praying for healing is part of being a Christian. It is one of many ways of showing God’s love. When healing comes, one has witnessed the miracle of God’s love being expressed by removing pain and sickness from a person. The miracles of transformed lives and the miracle of Salvation are equally great miracles. These are all expressions of God’s amazing love.
My belief in healing prayer is based on Scripture. Jesus announced His ministry as recorded in Luke 4:18-19, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight from the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” I then see throughout Jesus’ ministry, numerous healings. They were a significant part of His ministry. Matthew recognized Jesus’ healings as being a fulfillment of the ancient prophecy in Isaiah 53:4,5 when he wrote, “when evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to Him and He drove out the Spirits with the word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, he took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” Matthew 8:16-17.
Jesus sent out the 12 Apostles telling them to, “Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel, as you go, preach this message: The Kingdom of Heaven is near, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:6-8. Later Jesus sent out the 72 with the same commission when He instructed them, “Heal the sick who are there tell them the Kingdom of God is near you.” Luke 10:9. As Jesus approached the end of His earthly ministry, He tells His followers in John 14:12, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. You shall do even greater things than these, because I am going to my Father.”
What are the “greater things” Jesus commands us to do? His own words suggest that they have to do with prayer: “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (v. 13). He is not speaking about prayer in general, however, but rather about a specific kind of prayer: prayer that addresses the felt needs of the lost.
How do I arrive at this conclusion? The key is the word “glorified.” Jesus says that He will do anything we ask in His name, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son. That is, unbelievers will come to the Father through Jesus when they have been convinced of His divinity by a miracle. And beginning with Pentecost and continuing through the rest of the New Testament, we can see how it began to come true.
The rest of Christian history has expanded this promise of “greater” things—in terms of people, places, and things than Jesus was able to get to in his time on the earth. For example, not far from my home a hospital network exists that is built to honor and reflect the healing ministry of Jesus. Every hospital has pictures and art bearing witness to the Great Physician. This, and other things like the Pray! Network, must bring great joy to the Risen Lord.