How They Prayed, Vol. Three: When prayer becomes a Symphony

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“‘If two of you shall symphonize on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my father which is in Heaven.’ The word, symphonize, is a musical term,” wrote A. T. Pierson, “referring to the harmony of notes in a chord, which is possible only when each accords with the whole instrument. One note, out of tune, will turn accord into discord. So the power of joint supplication depends not on the numbers gathered, but on the measure of real agreement of each with the mind and will of God. One out of accord with Him hinders perfect harmony with the rest; hence the smallest number that can agree is specified, because there is more power when two pray, provided they truly agree, than when a larger number apparently unite but such agreement is lacking. Numbers are of no importance, but perfect harmony is.”

The above quotation has been taken from How They Prayed Volume Three, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey as are the following words of Lilias Trotter, taken from her book, The Master of the Impossible:

“The promise that has been alive these days is Matthew 18:18, ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ It is framed in on either side by the condition of unity of spirit. And this ‘binding’ and ‘loosing’ seems to be the true sphere of prayer. The two parables of intercession help mark this out as a battlefield of prayer―the friend on the midnight errand loosing the powers of life; the widow in her importunity binding the power of death.”

“The history of missions,” said Dr. S. M. Zwemer, “is the history of answered prayer. . . it is the key to the whole missionary problem. All human means are secondary. The work of missions from start to finish is a miracle of God’s grace. So stupendous is the task, so great the obstacles and opposition that ‘if we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.’ We must invoke and rely upon supernatural power.”

All quotations are taken from How They Prayed Volume 3 which is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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