There are two or three special matters in the prayer meeting which the brothers should pay attention to.
First, tell all the brothers who pray to learn to be short. Ten out of ten prayer meetings are ruined by long prayers. In the prayer meeting everyone should learn to pray in a short way. The elderly brothers may have a few long prayers. But tell the new believers from the very beginning to learn to be short. For the prayer meeting to have power and be strong, the prayer has to be short. Long prayers are often padded with many empty words. When you come to a prayer meeting, you should remember to tell the brothers to pray short prayers.
Second, we must warn the brothers and sisters that the words of their prayer in the prayer meeting must be honest. Warn the brothers and sisters that their prayer in their own personal prayer time and their prayer in the prayer meeting should not differ too greatly. Learn to be real. It is true that the words uttered in the prayer meeting need to be clear. When you are having your personal time before God, you may stop before a sentence is fully uttered; of course, you would have to continue this sentence in the prayer meeting. However, there are times when the words you use in the prayer meeting are not the words you use in your personal time of prayer. Many prayers in the prayer meeting are indeed not genuine. Sometimes when you are in a prayer meeting, you do not know whether a certain brother is praying for you or for God to hear. Whenever some people pray, they give the impression that they are praying for man to hear. Therefore, we need to charge them to pray from their heart; they must pray for God to hear. Do not let some brothers or sisters make prayer a kind of preaching of the truth nor let them give an intelligence report to God. Charge the brothers to learn to pray short prayers and to pray genuinely. These are the basic requirements of a prayer meeting. Speak only the words that you have. Do not go beyond what is genuine.
Third, those who are caring for the church in various localities must make a decision concerning the topics of prayer in the prayer meeting. We need to learn to do this one thing: Never allow the brothers to pray as they see fit. We have seen this in our prayer meetings for twenty years, perhaps close to thirty years. As a result, our prayer meetings are almost powerless. In a prayer meeting with twenty or thirty topics, with each topic being prayed by a different person, the one accord mentioned in Matthew 18 is nonexistent. Without the one accord, how could God listen?
Therefore, the prayer meeting in various localities must also be completely changed. The items for prayer need to be determined, but not necessarily determined beforehand. However, on the night of prayer you need to mention these items. Perhaps you would pray only for one item in one prayer meeting. For example, there might be problems in a locality, and we would pray just for that one locality. In our prayer there must be only one matter, and we must ask all the brothers and sisters to lay aside everything else and pray for this one matter. From beginning to end, the church should pray for this one matter, with everyone bringing this matter to God. A real prayer meeting will be like this.
A prayer meeting does not mean that everyone brings the prayer in his home into the meeting place to pray. In a prayer meeting we must pray specifically with one accord. The responsible brothers should say, “Today we must pray specifically for this one matter.” Everyone then prays for this one matter.
If there are five or six items to pray for and a responsible brother stands up to announce them, he should announce one item first. He may say, “We have several matters to pray for; however, we will pray for this one item first.” Do not mention other matters. After three or five prayers, you have to see whether the burden is discharged or not. If you feel that you should still pray for that matter, let them continue to pray. If the burden is gone, while the brothers are still sitting there or kneeling, a responsible brother should announce another item. Then the prayers of all the brothers and sisters will be on this topic. After five, ten, or twenty minutes, it may seem that the burden is gone again, and that no one has anything more to pray. The responsible brother should then stand up again and say that there are still a third and a fourth item which need prayer. Do you see? The topic must be focused. Even if there are three or four topics, they should not be announced at one time. Wait until the first topic has been thoroughly prayed for; then announce the second topic. In this way you will be able to make all the brothers and sisters pray for one item. After the first topic is over, bring in the second; after the second is over, bring in the third. Therefore, in the meeting the responsible brothers should learn before God to guide this meeting. The spirit of the responsible brothers must be open and sensitive. One responsible brother may say, “The prayer for this matter can stop here. There is no need to drag it on any longer.” Perhaps there are times when you still need to continue praying. At any rate, after the first matter is finished, the second matter can be brought in. If the burden is finished, you should then rise up immediately to announce the next item.
Sometimes during the entire meeting we can pray only for one matter, perhaps just for a sick brother. At other times we may pray only for the sick ones the entire night. At still other times we may pray for all the unemployed brothers or for just one unemployed brother. Always pray with a focus so that God’s children can pray with one accord. I think that this is a very crucial matter. Many prayer meetings are not strong because there are too many topics.