Sunday my pastor preached another mighty message. He stated that the ministry of the church is to bring down to Earth God's Kingdom as it is in Heaven. If we're not doing this, God has little use for us.

God has given us His will in His Word, and He supplements it with the ministry of prophesy (which of course must always agree with the Bible). We are to strive to make His will a reality in our lives, our families, our churches, and our world. How to do this? It all begins with prayer. The primary ministry of the church is to pray the will of God into everyday reality.

Matt 18:18-20, the famous binding and loosing passage reveals that the Christian already has huge authority in his or her prayer. We find out what the will of God is, and we declare it to be reality. We don't need to beg God, or cajole God, or convince God when we know His will. We simply need to call it into reality with persistence, then wait in patience and faith. God wants these things more than we do, and He's more than ready to act. Believe that once you pray according to His will that He is acting even if you can't see it.

We also need to be in agreement with our fellow believers on the matter. The will of God needs to be clear to the Body of Christ, and corporately we pray these things into reality. It's more than just joining hands and saying "Lord we agree together." It's all of us receiving a Word from the Lord that this is His will in the matter, and together we team up to bind and loose.

This unity is harder than it looks. Many times in the same prayer meeting God is receiving conflicting requests on an issue. That's why submission to pastoral authority is so important, as we listen to God's prophet speak what he or she believes to be God's will for a situation, and we all agree together. Pastor said there's more blessing in being in agreement, and heading the wrong direction than in being fragmented and in disagreement. For one thing God only need correct the leader to turn the prayers in the right direction. If we're fragmented we'll never be on the same page. Bottom line: If we can't agree with the prayer of the leadership, it's better that we remain silent.

Right now many of you are thinking, "How will we ever get to any kind of unity in the Body of Christ?" I have the same thoughts, but you'd be surprised at how much we really do agree on. In my city-wide prayer group we gather with one primary focus: To pray for regional revival. At times we feel like we're in a dark room groping along, but week after week we gather together to seek God's will. One thing that has come out is that we pray constantly for unity between the various Christian ministries, especially between pastors.

You can also pray with unity at different levels. Get into agreement with your spouse on God's will for your family and watch the blessings flow. Get into unity with your pastor on God's will for your church and watch it break out of its rut. Also, get into agreement with God concerning what He wants to do in you, then watch things fall into place in your life.

Here's one thing we can all agree on. Whatever is not of God needs to be bound. Whatever is of God needs to be loosed.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2002