Many born again Christians have learnt about the power of prayer and of the instruction for them to pray in agreement with their brethren. However some have misused the instruction Jesus gave us about prayers of agreement to promote gossip. A typical example would be where one sister visits another and begins a long story about one of the brothers in the church. She goes ahead to speak about the stories she has heard about him and of all the women he has been dating and how he fought with his workmate. After the long story where the host has been listening gleefully, she then winds up by saying, “I just told you all this so we can pray for him. The people in church these days need prayers!” Then she departs without even praying for it together with her fellow sister in Christ. Such a situation is equivalent to disguised gossip. It reminds of some of the movies produced in Nigeria which have no reference to God at all but at the end of the movie a caption appears stating, “To God be the Glory.” This is how many believers hide their gossip and slander these days.
The Psalmist tells about the qualifications of a person who can stand on God’s holy hill and one of them is, “He that BACKBITETH not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a  against his neighbor” (Psalms 15:3). To backbite is to censure, slander, reproach, or speak evil of the absent. Many believers are guilty of speaking about the errors of their fellow Christians to everyone else apart from the person themselves. Most times this is done with a hidden motive of appearing to be superior to others. It also results when someone speaks more than they ought to since a multitude of words produces a multitude of sin (Proverbs 10:19). When you notice a fellow Christian in a wrong, go and tell them privately. That is the method Jesus gave us to use, “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault BETWEEN THEE AND HIM ALONE: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother” (Matthew 18:15). Before telling anyone else about your brother’s fault, tell it to his face. Anyone who does otherwise is disobeying the Word of God. When you have told the brother his fault and he still refuses to change then you can go ahead to tell another person according to Matthew 18:16-17. Even when you tell someone else it should be with the intention of meeting the brother together with the person you have told so that they may help restore him to the right path. When the brother refuses to listen to the group of 2 or 3 you have called then you have the license to declare it to the whole church. When they refuse to hear the church then the world can get to know about it because the church would have expelled them.
A lot of harm has come to the body of Christ because of talebearers, “Thou shalt not go up and down as a TALEBEARER among thy people”(Leviticus 19:16). A talebearer is a person who officiously tells tales; one who impertinently communicates intelligence or anecdotes, and makes mischief in society by his officiousness. God says that no one should become a zealous gossiper among His people. Most of the time the information passed on by the talebearers is “tales” or stories that are commonly false and which they have derived from secondary sources that could have evil intentions of their own. Many Christians through this habit have become the ministers of the devil since he is called “the accuser of the brethren” (Rev 12:10). The devil enjoys speaking evil about others and slandering them.
One of the most dangerous consequences of gossiping comes about when believers do it against spiritual leaders. The Bible tells us that God can not permit anyone to slander his ministers, “Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (Psalms 105:15). When you touch the anointed by gossiping about them you open up yourself for judgment and attacks from the devil. Refrain from slander and only raise prayer requests about a person when you have spoken to them and prayed for them in private and they have not changed.