“If you abide in me and My words abide in you,
ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
(John 15:7; ESV)

Let me remind you what the Ekklesia is. It is the Greek word for Church, and in its most embryonic expression it is the gathering of at least two believers around the manifest presence of Jesus with authority to bind and release for God’s will to be done in their sphere of influence.

We saw that when two or three of you call on His name, He comes! He comes, He manifests Himself in the very place where you have gathered. And what do we do in His presence? Allow me to paraphrase what Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you abide in me and My words [the ones that I’m speaking to you] abide in you, you will know how to pray, and now you ask and whatever you wish, it will be done for you.” Awesome!

The deeper meaning of prayer is not talking; it’s abiding. It’s basking in His presence. Take time as you go to prayer to celebrate the presence of Jesus and to listen to Him. He may speak to you from a passage in the Bible. He may speak to you through your prayer partner. He may speak to you through a thought that pops up, but you will know that it comes from God.

Now let’s look again at Matthew 18:19: “And truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” We will be binding on earth what the Father and the Son already bound in heaven. That’s different from what we were doing before.

Imagine this picture. The Father is the principal figure at the top. Jesus is in our midst when we gather for prayer. He’s like a mirror at the right hand of the Father. We look to Jesus and then we are able to see what the Father is doing through the presence of Jesus. Now we are able to pray prayers that the Father will answer. At that moment we are given authority to bind and to release because the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet.

There is a lot of spiritual warfare going on and God is giving us authority to bind and to release, but we must be careful not to rush in too quickly. First, we welcome Jesus, we bow before Him, we abide in His words, we pray the prayers that He guides us to pray, the Father answers that, and now we discover what the Father has already bound in heaven or loosed in heaven and we do it here.

That’s when God crushes Satan––and all forms of evil––under our feet. Whose feet? The feet of the Ekklesia. Who is the head of the Ekklesia? Jesus. Where is Jesus? At the right hand of the Father. But now the Holy Spirit comes and reveals himself.

Look at this promise. “He, the Holy Spirit, will guide you”—oh this is so key in prayer—“he will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative but whatever He hears He will speak and He will disclose to you what is to come.” What will He reveal to you? Listen carefully. What the Holy Spirit hears the Father and the Son binding and loosing. Doesn’t this change prayer and make it more dynamic? Now we are asking God for the anointing because the anointing is what makes the difference.

The anointing is the breath of God, it’s the presence of God in your prayer meeting that revives everything in you.

Gideon without the anointing was a coward. Gideon with the anointing became a mighty man of God.

Samuel without the anointing was a miraculous baby. But with the anointing he became the greatest prophet in Israel.

David without the anointing was a lowly shepherd. With the anointing a mighty and prolific king.

Listen to the Holy Spirit. This is how Paul put it:

“For in Him we live, in Him we move, in Him we exist.” That completely changes prayer. Instead of going to prayer or seeking the Holy Spirit in the same manner you would look for a glass of water, you are like a fish continuously swimming in the ocean of His presence!

When you gather now, celebrate the presence of Jesus, exalt the presence of Jesus, realize you live in Him, you move in Him, you exist in Him. And now you abide in His words because He will speak to you, either by the written word, through your prayer partner, or through a sensation, but it will be a two-way street, and that’s why I pray that you will emulate Mary. When Mary didn’t know how what the angel was announcing would come to pass, she asked, “How can this be?” And the angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and He will deposit something in you.”

I pray that right now the Holy Spirit comes upon you and teaches you how to pray.

Points for Action:

Find a place in your home or workplace that you can designate as a meeting place with Jesus. It can be a chair or a corner, or even a corner of your desk. But it’s a meeting place for Him and with Him.

Abide in His presence there regularly (daily) to turn prayer into a two-way street.

Let the Holy Spirit come upon you now and teach you how to pray.

By Ed Silvoso
Founder and President, Transform Our World