Praying Together is Step One

Praying Friends,

On the night before he died, Jesus prayed … “that they may be brought to complete unity - so that the world will know that you sent me, and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:23)

That they may be one.

But that oneness feels far off, doesn’t it? We have been sliced and diced over the centuries - atomized into a thousand pieces. Our experience of church is not the one Jesus saw. When the New Testament speaks to the church in Ephesus, the church in Smyrna - though believers met in many homes scattered across a city - it addresses them as one. One Jesus. One church.

Organizational unity - everyone under one roof, one letterhead, one banner - is a pipe dream and a fool’s errand. Let’s let that one go. But organic unity - living oneness in Jesus himself - is a real thing. The question is … how do we discern it? How do we begin to experience it?

Prayer is the first step.

Not only prayer alone in our own rooms - though we need that too - but prayer together … with believers outside our own local house … seeking the Kingdom to come in our city, our town, our corner of New England.

This is the circulatory system of the Body. When we pray together across our churches, we become the heart and lungs that connect us to the Head - and therefore to one another - in him. If we pray together, it will not be the last thing we do … but it is necessarily the first.

This is why the rhythms of the Revival Covenant are so potentially transformative. They are a doorway to unity. And practically - as we pray together, month after month - we build the trust and the friendships that will be so needed if God answers our prayers.

Because no single local church has a mantle large enough to steward a regional awakening. But the whole Body of Christ does. Together.

So this week - would you seek him with someone beyond your own walls? Even one other church, one other believer. Let’s answer the prayer Jesus prayed.

The Lord will meet us there.

With you on the journey, 

Rev. Greg Johnson
Director, Revive New England