I think that one of the most overused verses in the Bible is Matthew 18:20 “For if two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” and one of the most disappointing is the verse immediately preceding it, which promises “If two of you agree on anything you ask, it shall be done for them by my Father in heaven.“

Verse 19 – if two of you agree – is often quoted to encourage people to pray together in pairs or small groups. “God promises to answer!” is the exhortation. Unfortunately, experience often proves otherwise, so the encouragement to meet is without substance. How many times do two or more pray together, yet what we’ve asked for isn’t done for us by our Father in heaven? Yet God’s word is true and His promises are trustworthy, so if our experience does not line up with the Word we must look more deeply into Scripture to see what our experience is missing, not hold up our experience as the truth and dismiss the Word.

The problem here is that the words do what they say on the tin: agree means agree, shall be done means shall be done. There is nothing in the Greek that suggests that they do not mean exactly what they say: there is not even a let out in the tense as there is in Matthew 7:7, where the tense of “ask and it shall be given” actually means ask persistently and it shall be given. The tense of “ask” means just once is enough.

So we gather, we agree, we ask, and yet nothing seems to happen. Why is that? One reason could be that we simply don’t wait long enough for the answer: we give up, and faith (if it ever really existed) evaporates. The promise doesn’t say when it will come, and the Bible has much to say about waiting. In fact “Wait” can seem like one of God’s favourite words. But although I think that can be true at times, I don’t think it is the main point here. I think the reason that a lot of “prayers of agreement” seem to go unanswered is in the first word of verse 20: “for.” Jesus says that the promise of answered prayer is a consequence of two or three being gathered in His name. Only when that is the case does He say He is present in the gathering, “there in the midst of them.“

First of all, what is it to be “gathered together?“ The Greek word means anything from being drawn together like fishes in a net, or assembled as a crowd, to the idea of those who were previously separated becoming one. Given that the heart of Jesus as He prayed in Gethsemane for us “all to be one,” and that the thrust of much of Paul’s teaching is that we are one body in Christ, I think the meaning of “gathering” tends towards the last definition. And “In His name“ does not just mean wearing our church name badges: the Greek word onoma means everything He is; His whole identity. To be in His name means to be the fullness of who we are in Christ. I think that to be gathered in His name means to be one in the spirit, not just in theory, “in faith,” or according to our theology; but experientially, in the lived reality of that moment. If this is the case, and since verse 19 (“when two of you agree…“) is conditional upon verse 20 (“For if two or three of you are gathered…”) the concept of agreement is elevated from being one of verbal and intellectual consensus to a shared understanding in the spirit of a prayer request that we know by revelation is in the Father’s will.

In those conditions we are together in unity according to Jesus’s prayer of John 17:21: “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”  When our hearts are in agreement like this and there is no doubt or discord, we are already in the Father’s will, so the answer to our prayer is standing right there with us.

I was in a prayer meeting this morning, when a brother mentioned that there was a photo in a ministry prayer letter from a meeting we had both attended that included me a girl that I had been praying with in. I had my hands raised in a posture of worship, and she was on her knees. I guess it made a good photo. We prodded at various things throughout the morning, then just as the meeting was ending (how often has that happened?) The Holy Spirit fell powerfully. At that moment, my friend showed me the prayer letter with the photograph. In hushed voices, we agreed in prayer that the Lord would grant that girl her petition, and we knew immediately that the prayer was answered. Jesus was there “in the midst” according to Matthew 18:20: we could feel His presence.

When Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit He said “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18) But I think we pray like orphans far too often in our corporate prayer times. Instead of meeting the conditions of “gathering in His name,” we talk to a Father who isn’t there, and then we wonder why He doesn’t appear to be listening.