• True prayers with real value before God are prayers that bring in God’s kingdom and drive out God’s enemy. Such prayers are uttered in ascension with a realization that the target is not man but Satan.
• We need to learn to forget the “bugs” of our problems and go to the source, Satan. We can preach to Satan regarding what the Lord has accomplished for us. 
• Praise is the highest work carried out by God’s children. The nature of praise is an offering; in other words, praise comes from pain, suffering, and loss. God desires His children to praise Him through everything and in every situation.
• Prayer is a warfare, but praise is a victory. Spiritual victory does not depend upon warfare, but praise.

THE PRAYER OF WARFARE

The true prayers of God’s people are for His kingdom. You and I may pray for numerous things, but unless the ultimate purpose is for God’s kingdom, those prayers are of no value before God. Prayer is categorically related to God’s enemy. There is a very great conflict in the universe between God and His enemy Satan. We should utter prayers of warfare, on one hand, to bring in God’s kingdom and, on the other hand, to drive out God’s enemy. Once you bow your knees before God, you indicate that in the universal conflict you are standing on God’s side, and you are totally opposed to God’s enemy. All genuine prayers are of a twofold purpose: on the positive side, to bring in God’s kingdom, and on the negative side, to cast out Satan’s power.

God is in the heavens, Satan is in the air, and man is on the earth. The entire earth is under the control of the air, and man is under the control of Satan. The position of prayer is the position of ascension. Genuine prayers are always uttered in the heavenly realm. Mrs. Penn-Lewis once said that one must first see clearly the position of ascension in Ephesians 2 in order to have the fighting prayers in Ephesians 6. All true men of prayer are seated together with Christ in the heavenlies and pray from the throne.

A prayer such as that just referred to is a prayer on the throne, even a reigning prayer. Man’s emotion, temper, flesh, opinion, and grievance need to be thoroughly dealt with in such a case. Whenever we have a grievance or anger, we fall from the heavens to the earth and immediately lose our position of ascension to pray. Thus, we have no way to pray.

All prayers that are expressed in the heavenly realm and from the throne of God are prayers of warfare. He who prays in this way is one who has passed through the cross, resurrected, and ascended. He is on the throne, far above the earth, and is not touched by any earthly thing. The prayers that he expresses from such a realm are prayers that can defeat the devil in the air and bring down God’s authority. This is the fighting prayer.

The target with which we are dealing in our prayers is not man but the devil. All the problems in the church are not with the brothers and sisters but with Satan. The problems in the family also are not with the husband, the wife, or the children but with Satan. The object of the prayer of spiritual warfare is not at all men of blood and flesh but the devil of the spiritual realm. If we are in the heavenly realm, we are able to pray such prayers of ascension, that is, prayers of warfare. Such prayers of warfare are for the driving out of Satan and the ushering in of God’s kingdom.

PREACHING TO SATAN

The Lord has shown us the most effective way to defeat the enemy. What we need to do is to take the covenant, the word of God, and preach to Satan regarding what the Lord has accomplished for us. For example, whenever we were troubled by our temper in the past, we first confessed it, then asked the Lord for forgiveness, prayed to the Lord to help us, and finally made up our mind never to lose our temper again. I experienced this many times. But we should not do this anymore. When our temper is aroused, we should forget it and preach to Satan. Go to the source of the problem—Satan—and preach to him, saying, “Satan, you have been crucified on the cross.” The more you preach to Satan, the more you will be released. I hope that you will give a strong word to the enemy, saying, “Satan, you have deceived me for years. But by reading these messages, my eyes have been opened, and I see that I must no longer be indifferent. Satan, you are not only God’s enemy—you are also my enemy. From now on, I will be absolute for my Lord, and I will never listen to you.”

Do not spend time dealing with your temper or your besetting sin. These things are little “bugs.” Rather, tell Satan, “Satan, I have been distracted for years with paying attention to my temper and to my besetting sin. But now I will pass this on to you. I will not pay attention to these things, but I will pay attention to preaching to you. I don’t have the time to pray about my temper, but I do have the time to give you another sermon.” We all have been deceived, saying, “Oh, my temper and my besetting sin! If I don’t overcome them, how can I be holy, see the face of the Lord, and have the proper church life?” Leap out of your besetting sin and give Satan a sermon.

After you have preached to Satan for a while, you should forget about him. The enemy is subtle. After preaching to the devil for a period of time, you should say, “Devil, I have no more time to preach to you. Rather, I would use my time to tell my Lord how much I love Him. Get away—now is the time for me to enjoy a honeymoon with my Lord.” After preaching for a certain period of time, you must stop and spend your time in loving the Lord, saying, “Lord, I enjoy looking at You and talking to You. Lord, I want to satisfy You, to be one with You, and to stay in Your presence.”

PRAISING

Praise is the highest work carried out by God’s children. We can say that the highest expression of a saint’s spiritual life is his praise to God. God’s throne is the highest point in the universe, yet He sits “enthroned upon the praises of Israel” (Psa. 22:3). God’s name and even God Himself are exalted through praise.

The Sacrifice of Praise

The book of Psalms is full of praises. However, it contains chapters not only of praises but also of suffering. God wants His people to know that the praising ones are the very ones who have been led through trying situations and whose feelings have been wounded. These psalms show us men led by God through shadows of darkness. They were rejected, slandered, and persecuted. Yet God perfected praises out of these ones. Words of praise do not always come from the mouths of the smooth-sailing ones. They come much more from those who are under discipline and trial. In the Psalms we can touch the most wounded feelings, and in the Psalms we also can find the greatest and highest praises. God uses many hardships, difficulties, and slanders to create praises in His people. He causes them to learn through difficult circumstances to become praising persons before the Lord. God does not want men to praise Him only when they are on the mountaintop surveying Canaan, the promised land. God desires much more to see His people writing psalms and praising Him when they “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (23:4). This is genuine praise.

This shows us the nature of praise in the eyes of God. The nature of praise is an offering, a sacrifice. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name.” What is a sacrifice? A sacrifice is an offering. An offering means death and loss. The person who offers an offering must suffer some loss. Although praise offered as a result of gain is praise, it cannot be considered an offering. The principle of offering is based on loss. God wants us to praise Him in the midst of our loss. This makes a real offering.

We should not only pray to God but also learn all the more to praise God. As you learn to praise, you will find that there are days in which you cannot gather yourself to praise. On such days you are in pain, total darkness, or dire trouble. How can you praise God on such days? At that very moment, you should remember that Jehovah’s throne has not changed, His name has not changed, and His glory has not changed. You should praise Him simply because He is worthy of praise. At that moment, your praise becomes a sacrifice of praise. Your praise is like the slaughter of your fattest calf. 

Praise and Victory

We have seen that our praise is a sacrifice. But there is more. We have to see that praising is the way to overcome spiritual attacks. Satan’s greatest attacks are not aimed at prayers; his greatest attacks are aimed at praise. Prayer is a warfare, but praise is a victory. Prayer signifies spiritual warfare, but praise signifies spiritual victory. Whenever we praise, Satan flees. Therefore, Satan hates our praising the most. He will use all his strength to stop our praising. God’s children are foolish if they stop praising when they suffer under adverse environments and downtrodden feelings. But as they come to know God more, they will find that even a Philippian jail can become a place of songs (Acts 16:25). Paul and Silas were praising God inside the jail cell. Their praise broke loose all the jail doors.

Many times praise works where prayer fails. When you encounter unusual circumstances and problems and are bewildered and feel like collapsing, just remember one thing, “Why not praise?” Here is a golden opportunity. If you offer your praise at that moment, God’s Spirit will operate in you, open all the doors, and break all the chains. We need to learn to maintain this lofty spirit, this spirit that surpasses all attacks. Prayers may not bring us to the throne, but praise surely brings us to the throne at any time. Many people are conscious of Satan’s ferocity and their own weaknesses, and they resolve to struggle and pray. However, we find a very unique principle here: Spiritual victory does not depend on warfare but on praise.

New believers should not think that they have to pass through many years before they can learn the lesson of praise. They should realize that they can start praising immediately. If you believe in God, you can tell the Lord in the midst of your problems, “I praise Your name. You are higher than everything. You are stronger than everything. Your lovingkindness endures forever!” A person who praises God transcends everything. He overcomes continually by his praise.

Praising before Understanding

Today is still the time when we see in a mirror obscurely (1 Cor. 13:12). Although we can see a little of many things, we cannot understand the meaning behind them. Everything will be clear when we go before the Lord on that day. On that day we will see why the Lord allowed [so many] things to happen to us. Therefore, today we must learn to say, “Lord, I cannot understand what You are doing, but I know that You cannot be wrong.” We have to learn to believe and to praise. Today we have to learn to believe that the Lord is good and that He is never wrong, even though we cannot always understand what He is doing. If we believe, we will praise. May God gain abundant praises from His children.

Fellowship Questions

1. What does it mean to pray fighting prayers? How can we pray from the position of ascension?
2. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but…against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.” Can you describe how the object of fighting prayers are not our problems themselves, but the enemy behind those problems? 
3. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him…because of the word of their testimony.” Can you describe the experience of preaching to Satan?
4. According to your understanding, what is the difference between prayer and praise? Have you had an experience where praise was more effective than prayer?

Excerpts taken from Lessons on Prayer, ch. 18; Life-study of Revelation, msg. 38, 46; CWWN, Vol. 48, ch. 16, “Praising”

• We need to learn to pray as a team, being coordinated like the members of a basketball team. 
• Each of us should come to the prayer meeting as an active participant with a living and exercised spirit, rather than as a spectator.
• As members of a team, we should be prepared to function one after the other, following each other in prayer.
• We need to learn to pray in a corporate way, caring for the atmosphere and flow of the meeting, and taking the Spirit as our center, flow, line, and goal.

LEARNING HOW TO FUNCTION IN THE PRAYER MEETING

The meetings of the church are where all the members of Christ’s Body assemble to function (1 Cor. 14:23-32). When we come to the meetings, we should not come as spectators; rather, we should come as participants. If a basketball team wishes to play well, the team members cannot stand around and watch the game. Rather, they must participate actively and play as a team. Likewise, whenever we meet together as believers, we must realize that we are a team. Immediately upon coming together, we need to begin to “play.” We should not wait, nor should we watch. Rather, we should exercise to function. If my spirit is living and exercised, when I come to a meeting, I may have a sense in my spirit to speak a word for the Lord. While I am speaking, you must exercise to follow. When you finish functioning, another saint should be ready to follow you. Like the members of a basketball team, each of the saints should be prepared to function one after the other so that the meeting can continue in a good way.

The prayer meeting is very different from all the other meetings of the church. It is a meeting for the saints to come together to pray in coordination. In the prayer meeting there are a number of ways in which we can pray. Hence, we need to learn to discern the appropriate way to pray on different occasions. On certain occasions we need to claim something for the Lord and His interests. To begin the prayer that claims something for the Lord, a brother or sister may pray, “Lord, we praise You. You have redeemed us, and You have won the victory over Your enemy. You have given us the ground, and You have given us Your name and Your word. In Your name and according to Your word we have the ground to claim something tonight.” Another saint may continue and pray a particular prayer according to the Lord’s leading to claim a certain matter, such as the healing of a saint who is ill or the Lord’s blessing on the church’s preaching of the gospel. The entire prayer meeting should be a coordination of many prayers to claim something for the Lord’s interest.

Suppose midway through such a prayer meeting a brother or a sister who does not know how to pray in a coordinated way prays, “O Lord, we are so weak and poor. O Lord, be merciful to us.” This kind of prayer will damage the meeting. Although prayer for the Lord’s mercy may be appropriate in a different prayer meeting, it is not fitting for the prayer in which we are claiming something for the Lord. If all the members of a basketball team play according to a certain strategy, and one player begins to play independently according to a different strategy, they will have no way to continue their playing.

In another prayer meeting we may sense the need to repent to the Lord and confess to Him. Among us there may be some sinful things that hinder our prayer and the Lord’s marvelous doings in our midst. Since sin is a hindrance to the Lord, the sinful things must be dealt with. At the beginning of the prayer meeting one of the responsible brothers may call an appropriate hymn on the subject of repentance. After singing this hymn, we may offer some prayers of repentance and confession to the Lord. During such prayer we should not pray, “Lord, we are here claiming. Hallelujah! You are victorious. We claim such and such in Your name.” Such a prayer does not fit that kind of prayer meeting. Our praying in this way indicates that we are not in the flow. In the prayer meetings we need to learn how to pray in the flow of the Spirit. 

We must learn to come to a prayer meeting to pray as a body, a corporate body. To pray in the spiritual realm must be something corporate. Even in the worldly realm, to play football with eleven members on your team or basketball with five members on your team is not done individualistically but in a corporate way.

A long prayer always kills the prayer meeting. A long prayer indicates that you care only for yourself and that you do not care for others. You care only for your feeling; you do not care for the atmosphere and the flow in the meeting. When we come together to pray, you should not be the flow, but the Spirit should be the flow. You should not be the line, but the Spirit should be the line. You should not be the goal, but the Spirit should be the goal. We all must hold such an attitude with such a spirit that we are not the center, the flow, the line, the goal, but the Lord, the Spirit, is. Therefore, we are open—open to the Lord and open to the Spirit. If He would use us to start a prayer, maybe we would pray for just two seconds. We would not pray a long prayer to express our opinion, our feeling. Perhaps we have the inner feeling that this meeting of prayer should begin with the Lord’s mercy. Then maybe we would pray, “Lord, have mercy upon us. Thank You, Lord. Thank You that Your mercy can reach much further than Your grace.” This is good enough. The Lord just uses us this much to open the prayer meeting with His mercy.

If we were not following the way from our traditional background and if we were following the living Spirit instantly, no one would pray a long prayer full of doctrinal points. The prayer meetings do not need that. The prayer meetings need a lot of instant, fresh inspiration with fresh points. This fresh inspiration is news, even the heavenly news. We all would pray one after another just like a team in a ball game. The members of one team play with one ball. 

We must learn to forget all the things that we have, all the things that we know, and even all the things that we have heard recently. Let us come together to pray with an open spirit with nothing occupying us; just come to the prayer meeting in an empty way. We should come to the prayer meeting with our whole being on the altar so that the Lord can operate within us and even expose us. We should come to the prayer meeting with the attitude that we do not know anything but that we only know the Lord Himself.

In the Lord’s recovery we practice one thing—to live in spirit. We should not live in the old way of prayer, nor should we follow the old way of prayer. We must live in spirit and walk according to spirit. Your long prayer is altogether according to your knowledge, to your hearing, and to your kind of realization. There is no Spirit there. There are a lot of sentences full of wasted words. I say again that a prayer meeting should be like a team. All the members of the team are on the alert to play with one ball. You should pray in a way that the next one who prays can continue your prayer. If you played ball in such a way that no one could continue playing, you would be off the team.

POINTS RELATED TO THE PRAYER MEETING

Being in One Accord

The first point is to be in one accord. The Chinese Union Version of the Bible translates one accord as “the same heart and the same will.” This word in Greek refers to the harmony in a musical composition. In order to be in harmony, the heart of a people must be one, and their will must be in agreement.

Meeting together to pray always exceeds personal prayer in weight, value, authority, and power. There is a principle in the Bible that one chases a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight (Deut. 32:30). This also applies to prayer. Individual prayer is powerful, but corporate prayer is much more powerful.

This is the reason the Bible, especially in Acts, shows the church meeting together to pray whenever important matters were encountered. This can be compared to moving an object. Although one person may be able to move a fifty-pound object by himself, no one can move an object that weighs one thousand pounds. Even if one thousand people were to take turns pushing the object, no one would be able to move it. But if a concerted effort was made to move it together, we would need only ten or more people to move the object. This is the power of corporate prayer.

Regardless of how many of us pray together, we must pray as one person. A prayer meeting in which we are not in harmony, in one accord, is not effective. If we pray as many people, instead of as one person, there is no harmony, no one accord, in the prayer meeting. If there is no harmony, it would almost be better not to pray corporately because prayer in discord, without harmony, divides and kills. Such prayers are even inferior to personal prayers, because they annul prayer. Therefore, the first crucial point for the prayer meeting is to be in one accord.

Being Genuine

The second point is to be genuine. This means that our prayers should not be feigned. We should neither feign nor make up a prayer, both of which are false and not genuine. Although we should consider others when we pray, we should not pray for others to hear; rather, we pray for the Lord to hear. If we pray for others to hear, there will definitely be the element of pretense and embellishment in our prayer. Embellishment brings in falsehood. In the prayer meeting we need to consider others’ response and feeling, and we need to learn to pray before God, as if no one else were with us. Only such prayers are without pretense and embellishment. The more genuine our prayers in the prayer meeting are, the better.

Being Short

The third point is to be short. We should not be a person with a mouth that does not open or a mouth that does not shut once we begin to pray. Some people seem to have problems with their mouth in the prayer meeting. Either they cannot open their mouth to pray, or when they do open their mouth, they cannot conclude their prayer and close their mouth. Long prayers kill the spirit of the meeting, causing the spirit of the meeting to sink. Therefore, prayers must be short in the prayer meeting.

Not Having Too Many Subjects

The fourth point is not to have too many subjects for prayer. In order to have a good prayer meeting, there should not be too many prayer items. The prayer meetings in our localities often commit the mistake of having a long list of prayer items.

The Bible does not record examples of prayer meetings with many subjects. In Acts 4:24-31, when the believers gathered together, they specifically prayed for the church in Jerusalem under persecution. In chapter 12, verses 5 and 12, the church gathered together to pray fervently concerning Peter, who had been arrested by Herod, put into prison, and was about to be harmed. 

If there are too many items in a prayer meeting, nothing will be accomplished. If there are too many items to pray for in every meeting, eventually everyone will be worn out, feeling as if every item is of equal importance and, consequently, does not have much meaning. There will be no burden, not to mention impact. This kind of prayer meeting is merely a meeting, without genuine prayer, and it completely misses the significance of the prayer meeting. May the prayer meetings in every locality be adjusted according to these points.

Fellowship Questions

1. How can praying corporately be likened to playing basketball on a team? Considering your experience of praying with others, what can you apply from this picture?
2. How do you think we can sense the atmosphere and flow of the Spirit when we come together to pray?
3. What are some hindrances to praying corporately in the flow of the Spirit? What do you think is the fundamental problem?

Excerpts taken from Exercising Our Spirit to Practice the Body Life, ch. 10; Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery, ch. 10; Lessons for New Believers, ch. 12

• Blending can be accomplished only by praying together with the exercise and release of the spirit, in which our spirit comes forth freely.
• We should learn to fellowship in a way that we can be known by others and prayed for by others, while learning not to over-share; this fellowship lays the foundation for us to be blended together through prayer, practical care, and shepherding.

PRAYER IN THE VITAL GROUPS

For the vital groups, the first thing is our prayer. Today we need to be blended together by much and thorough prayer. In our prayer we should not merely exercise our spirit but also release our spirit. Praying is the unique way for us to exercise our spirit and even the more to release our spirit. When our spirit is released, we can be blended together in this released spirit. Actually, when our spirit is released, there is no need to talk about blending. The released spirits are a kind of blending.

When we come together to pray, we need to release our spirit by praying short prayers. The long prayer is a prayer of composition. It is not prayer out of a burden. Short prayers fan our spirit into flame. The proper prayer always releases us. If we pray and our spirit is not exercised and released, our prayer is wrong. When you are released, when I am released, and when everyone is released, that is the real blending.

We need vital groups, not formal, religious, and dead groups. We need to pray, “Lord, make us vital in singing, vital in speaking, and vital in everything.” Our habit of being formal limits us in the meetings of the church. In our vital groups we should be living and exercised in our singing and praying.

CONSIDERING ONE ANOTHER SO AS TO INCITE ONE ANOTHER TO LOVE AND GOOD WORKS

Hebrews 10:24 says that we need to consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works. This implies that we have a genuine care for all the members of our vital group. To care for one another means to consider one another. Today we may not care for others. When we consider one another, we incite one another to love and good works. We stir up one another. We do not really care whether or not a certain brother comes to the meeting or whether or not a certain sister is sick. The genuine care for one another needs to be recovered among us.

To consider one another in a practical way is to love one another. We say that we love one another, but in what way do we love? We may not care for anyone in a practical way. Love means practical care and consideration.

We need the intimate fellowship with one another with the practical care and shepherding. If a brother has lost his job, we should pray for him. We should also consider his material situation. This is real love. If we see brothers who are in need and merely tell them that the Lord will take care of them, that is not love. That is vain talk. We should care for one another, consider one another, in a practical way.

The first thing we have to do in the vital group meetings is to have a thorough fellowship together so that we can know the members of our group in an intimate way. The more thorough our fellowship is, the better. Do we know the occupations of the saints in our vital group and where each one works? Do we know the first and last names of every member of our vital group with their proper pronunciation? By considering these questions, we can see that our fellowship has not been thorough. To love one another involves a lot. We need to endeavor to know one another intimately in the Lord. We say that our group should be blended, but our blending has not been completed, because we do not know each other thoroughly.

Learning to Open to One Another in Twos or Threes

[Besides meeting with one another in a larger group], you may have two or three [you can meet with outside the meeting]. You two or three should come together and pray and get to know each other. In grouping together, the first thing to do is to know one another. Whenever you come together, you should ask concerning the present situation of each group member. We may say that we know each other, but actually we do not. When one of our family members is sick, we may avoid telling others. Instead of opening our situation to one another, we hide things from one another.

After opening to one another concerning our present situation, we should pray for one another and care for and help one another. This is a further step in the practice of the group meetings. After forming a group, you should not go the next day to visit people by knocking on new doors. Rather, the group members should pray together…When we come together to fellowship, we still do not fully open ourselves to one another. Thus, there has been little result from our fellowship. 

Let us have more specific fellowship concerning how to [contact one another outside of the meetings]. First, we must pray for [one another]. If we want to bring someone to God, we must first go to God on their behalf. We should mention them by name to God…and pray for them often. Such prayer is necessary and should be specific. We should no longer have general prayers, saying, “Lord, revive Your church. Remember the brothers and sisters.” It is not that general prayers are not effective but that the effectiveness of our prayers depends on how specific they are.

After interceding, we need to contact [them] personally. We will know their true situation by contacting them. We will know their occupation, their family, their financial situation, any marital problems, their children’s education, and their spiritual condition. We can be clear concerning others only after we have personal contact with them. Such contact will guide our prayers and deepen our burden. Knowing [one another’s] actual situation is the base for intercession.

Practicing Fellowship to Lay a Foundation for Blending

If we would practice the blending, we should not forget the matter of fellowship. Fellowship is the basis for blending. Thus, we must practice the fellowship. By so doing we will lay the foundation for the blending. 

We should not be afraid of being known by others. The more we are known in a proper way, the better. This will put down our pride, take away our boasting, annul our superiority complex, and even put aside our inferiority complex. However, most of us are not willing to expose ourselves. Instead, we prefer to cover ourselves by pretending to one another. Because of this, it is difficult for us to have an intimate and thorough fellowship that results in our being blended together.

Practicing Prayer that Issues in Blending

We should not do anything naturally, nor should we be silent. We should tell the Lord that we do not want to be silent or natural. This forces us to learn what it means to exercise our spirit. To exercise our spirit, we need a lot of dealing. We must first deal with our natural way and our natural person, our natural being, which includes our natural prayer and our natural speaking. Some of you, on the other hand, are naturally silent. If all these habitual ways are not broken in us, we cannot be grouped together in a vital way. To be grouped together is to be blended together. According to our experiences, there is no other way to be blended except by thorough and much prayer. We should not think that if we talk together, we will be blended. Blending can be accomplished only by praying together. We must be persons of prayer.

From the first day that the Lord Jesus began to call the disciples, He started the grouping. The Lord was like a big magnet, drawing the disciples to Himself to become a group.. Eventually, those who remained in an absolute way for God’s purpose after the Lord’s earthly ministry were the one hundred twenty. The Lord gained only one group, and this group prayed in one accord for ten days (Acts 1:14-15). They stayed together, they lived together, they ate together, and they lodged together for ten days, doing nothing but praying. Then they experienced the outpoured Spirit on the day of Pentecost. On earth at that time, there was only one group whose prayer touched the heart of God and His throne in the heavens.

Prayer is really powerful, but in order to be powerful, our prayer must be a prayer that touches the throne of God and the heart of God, and it must be a prayer that can move the very God. We do not want to go out to reach others until our grouping is consummated. Otherwise, we may go out but go out powerlessly as we did in the past. We need to pass through a period of time in which we can be blended with all the members of our group and allow the Lord to gain our group as one entity for the carrying out of His New Testament economy.

When we pray, we must have the faith that our released spirit will touch and open up the spirits of others. Each time we open our mouth to pray, we should believe not only that our prayer will be heard by God but also that it will touch the spirits of the saints. Once our spirit is opened and released, the spirits of the saints will be stirred up.

Being Open to Let the Spirit Come Forth to Be Blended and Made One

Being open means to let our spirit come forth; it does not mean to speak frankly with others and to point out their wrongdoings. This kind of “openness” only opens up a tomb and spreads death. The openness that we speak of involves the release of the spirit. When we are meeting together, our spirit should be open; when everyone’s spirit is open, the saints will be blended spontaneously. When we begin to pray, we may have different opinions concerning a matter, but as we pray and our spirits are released, we will become of one mind. When our spirits are in one flow and fully blended, spontaneously we will be one, and we will not be governed by different opinions.

Fellowship Questions

1. For our prayer and blending in the vital groups, why is it important for us to know one another in a proper way? Checking with your own experience, do you see why this requires practice and learning?
2. What do you think it means to let our spirit come forth? What kind of effect does releasing your spirit have on others?
3. How does this reading affect your understanding of what blending is?

Excerpts taken from Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, chs. 2, 9, 10–12, 17; Service for the Building Up of the Church, ch. 2; The Priesthood and God’s Building, ch. 4

• Prayer is the only way to practice the church life. Instead of simply following an outward way or copying another way, we must go to the Lord directly to let Him speak to us in a fresh way.
• The goal of our prayer is to become the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. We need the utterance of the Holy Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit’s expression of God’s desire through our prayer.

THE PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

Strictly speaking, there is no outward charter in the church. Rather, what the church should have is a prayer life. There is a great difference between the way people practice Christian churches today and the record of the churches in the book of Acts. Today people practice to have rules, regulations, creeds, and an outward charter, but in Acts we cannot find such things. 

Prayer was the initiation of the church’s existence. The first local church, the first expression of the church, came into being through the prayer of the one hundred twenty for ten days. They did not have written regulations or a charter for an organization. What they had was ten days of prayer.

THE NEED FOR THE LEADING ONES AND SERVING ONES TO PRAY

The service of a leading one, an elder, a deacon, or a serving one in the church, is firstly a matter of prayer. All the leading ones must come together to pray. It is hard enough to pray by ourselves, but to ask all the leading ones and serving ones to come together to pray is more difficult. The biggest reason for this is that we do not have the oneness.

I can testify that where there is a group of leading ones who know how to pray in this way, there the church is very strong, prevailing, and living. On the contrary, where there is a group of leading ones who know nothing of this kind of prayer, but who know only to argue a cause, to debate, to fight, and to convince one another, there the church is a dead church. A brother may seem to know something about spiritual matters, but he always insists on what he knows. When he comes together with the leading ones, he always knows the way to convince them all. However, he may not know how to go into the presence of the Lord and how to go to the Lord with others to contact the Lord and let the Lord have the opportunity to speak and reveal something. This is the biggest problem in the church today.

PRAYER BEING THE ONLY WAY TO PRACTICE THE CHURCH LIFE

If we are going to learn to pray with others in such a way, we must first give up our self and our own thoughts. We honor the Lord, we respect the Lord, and we implore the Lord, “Lord, we come to You to seek Your mind. We bring ourselves into Your presence to give You the full opportunity to speak something.” We need to pray in such a way.

We are not following an outward way, and we will not copy a certain way. This is something dead. We must go to the Lord and pray to open a new way for Him to come in. We must pray for the present situation concerning what the Lord will speak and what He will do. This is the only way to practice the church life. It is even wrong to say that we are going to practice the church life according to the book of Acts. We should not say, “Here in Acts is something that the apostles practiced in the early days. Let us do the same thing today.” This is merely to copy the apostles in the way of dead letters. This has no life, no anointing, and no impact. Rather, we must pray. We must bring our present situation, our need, and all things in prayer to the Lord and pray continually until all the leading ones have the same anointing and the same assurance that they see something of the Lord for us today. Then there will be the freshness, the newness, the anointing, and the impact. The Lord will honor this.

It is easy to speak about this, but to practice this kind of prayer is very difficult. If we try to pray in this way, we will discover where we are. If we come together merely to discuss something, everyone will be very active, but if we try to kneel down to pray, after a few minutes some may begin to sleep. 

We must pray sufficiently, pray through, and pray in a new way. We should not have a formula in our mind and bring it to the Lord to ask Him to perform it. This is the wrong way to pray. Many times people have a formula that they bring to the Lord and ask Him to carry it out according to their own way. This does not work. We must come to the Lord like a sheet of blank, white paper, saying, “Lord, here we are. Write on us. Impress us with what Your mind is and what You want to do.” This requires strength, energy, patience, and travailing in the spirit. There is no quicker way. The practice of the church is not a quick matter. We must pay a price for it in the spirit.

MAKING THE CHURCH IN OUR LOCALITY A PRAYING CHURCH

The problem today is that when we have a message meeting, many people come, but when there is a prayer meeting, only one-third of the saints come. With only a few in the prayer meeting, that church is the weakest one. If all the believers come when the church has a prayer meeting, that church will be the most prevailing. It will be a living church. We should pray by ourselves and help others to pray. We must make the church in our locality a praying church. Take this word and try to practice it. Then on the one hand, we will see the difficulties, but on the other hand, we will see the blessing.

Prayer is not simple. In this universe there is not only the physical world; there is also a spiritual world. Evil spiritual forces are always fighting, hindering, and frustrating the Lord’s work. We must have prayer to face the situation and fight the battle. We cannot build up a church merely by teaching doctrines. Even in gospel preaching, we cannot merely preach to bring people to the Lord. We need to pray to fight the battle against the wiles of the strong man so that the Lord will bind the strong man and all the souls in his hand will be released. This can be carried out only by prevailing prayer, not by teaching or preaching alone.

May we all be impressed with this. This message is not merely a lesson in a classroom. Rather, this is a spiritual training for us to learn the way of the Lord. May the Lord impress us, more than with any other matter, that we must go to Him to pray for the practice of the church life.

THE PRAYER MEETING

In the prayer meeting, the things that are in need of prayer should be explained in simple and short words. One should not say too many words. Every time we want to bring up a matter for prayer, we should ask ourselves whether or not we have prayed over the same matter at home. If we have not prayed over the matter at home, there is no need to bring it up in the meeting and deceive the brothers. If you have never prayed for something in your home, the need is not there, and there is no value in praying over it. Anything that has not been prayed over by you does not need to be prayed over at all. If you have prayed over a matter, yet feel inadequate when praying over it alone, it is worth mentioning in the prayer meeting; it is then a meaningful subject for prayer.

Men often use words in the prayer meeting which they do not use in their own room. This is quite inappropriate. Anything that he does not have a burden to pray about in his room should not be brought up in the prayer meeting. All burdenless prayers are unnecessary prayers. All burdenless prayers are prayers that God never answers. If a prayer touches you, it touches God. If a prayer is accompanied by a burden within you, there is certainly a burden with God. If there is oneness and burden in our prayer during the prayer meeting, the power is surely greater than that of our individual prayers. Otherwise, there is no need for public prayer. All prayers that are unhindered, in oneness, and without barriers are effective prayers. God will surely listen to these prayers. This is why we call prayer a kind of work.

Prayers do not have to be long or numerous. We have to build a net in our prayers, but one person alone does not have to build the net. If you feel that something has not been covered in the prayers, you should privately ask God to raise up others to pray and cast the net. In the prayer meeting, we should allow others to have a chance to pray. If we do this, there will be living prayers and prayers offered in one accord.

Sometimes God will use one of us to speak for the brothers and sisters. All those who are experienced in prayer know how difficult it is to find suitable utterance to express the needs. Although five or eight brothers pray for the same thing, the burden may not be released. Therefore, we have to ask the Lord to grant us the words to pray and express the thoughts in our burden. We should pray that God would raise up some to express His thoughts. Sometimes there can be as many as ten brothers praying for something, and all ten prayers can be good and up to standard, yet there is still the feeling that none of the prayers has hit the point, and the burden is not released. All of a sudden a brother may start praying and, as soon as he opens his mouth, the burden is released. Everyone feels right and says amen to it. This is a prayer in the Holy Spirit. In a prayer meeting, if no one expresses the inner need on behalf of everyone, that meeting is a failure. If we pray from 7:00 to 7:30 and successfully hit  the point, we can go home; there is no need to go on praying, because we have reached the goal. The utterance of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit’s expression of God’s desire through man’s prayer. Only this kind of prayer can be considered a thorough prayer.

In the prayer meeting, there is the need for someone to be the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. If someone can be the mouthpiece, all problems will be gone. Our problem is that we do not know the needs. But God knows. Therefore, every brother and sister should strive to be the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. Whenever the prayers are thorough, the burden is released, and we know that there is no further need to pray.

Fellowship Questions

1. What does it mean that prayer is the only way to practice the church life? What are some other ways we take that may replace our being freshly led by the Lord?
2. What price must be paid to arrive at prayer where there is freshness, newness, the anointing, and impact? Do you see why practicing this kind of prayer is not a quick matter?
3. What is our goal in the prayer meeting? Can you describe the experience of finding the suitable utterance and expressing God’s burden?

Excerpts taken from Basic Principles for the Practice of the Church Life, ch. 5; The Assembly Life, ch. 3

• The ministry of the church is to bring the will in heaven to earth. The extent to which the church prays is the extent to which God can move.
• We must have prayers that are bigger than those centered on ourselves and our personal difficulties. The church must pray big prayers to allow God to work without restriction.
• Whatever we are praying for, our prayer must be toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s eternal economy. 

THE PRAYER MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH—BRINGING THE WILL IN HEAVEN TO EARTH

In Matthew 18:18 the Lord says, “Truly I say to you, Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” The special thing is that there must be a move on earth before there is a move in heaven. It is not heaven that binds first but the earth that binds first. It is not heaven that looses first but the earth that looses first. Everything, whether it is something to be bound or loosed, should have its binding or its loosing originate from the earth. The move on the earth precedes the move in heaven. The earth controls heaven.

We have to see that God works according to a law. Since there is free will on earth, God will not annul man by His own will. Brothers and sisters, do not think that this is a strange thing. This is a fact. God is in heaven. Yet all His works on earth can be accomplished only when there is a will on earth that agrees with and decides to do the works. He will not put aside man’s will on earth. He will not usurp man’s will on earth and act independently. Everything related to Him can be accomplished only when there is a will on earth that cooperates with Him. When the earth works, God works. When the earth decides, God acts. God must have man’s will in harmony with His will. This harmony in will is a great glory to God!

Today this is called the ministry of the church. The ministry of the church is to bring the will in heaven to earth. How does the church bring the will in heaven to earth? It is by prayer on earth. Prayer is not as small and insignificant as some may think. It is not something that is dispensable. Prayer is a work. Prayer is the church saying to God, “God, we want Your will.” Prayer is the church knowing God’s heart and opening its mouth to ask for what is in God’s heart. If the church does not do this, it does not have much use on earth.

Many prayers for spiritual edification, prayers for fellowship, and prayers for supplication cannot replace prayers that are in the nature of work or ministry. If all your prayers are prayers for spiritual edification, fellowship, and supplication, they are too small. A prayer that is in the nature of work or ministry is one in which you stand on God’s side, wanting what God wants. Brothers and sisters, if a prayer is uttered according to God’s will, it is the most powerful thing. For the church to pray means that it finds out God’s will and speaks out this will. Prayer is not just asking God for something. For the church to pray means that it stands on God’s side to declare that man wants what God wants. If the church declares this, the declaration will be effectual.

God wants to do many things on earth today. But He must have the church stand on His side before He can accomplish these things through the church. God cannot do what He wants to do by Himself; He has to do it with the cooperation of the church. The church is the means through which God expresses Himself. The church is like a water tap. If the tap is small, the amount of water flowing through the tap will not be great, even if there is as much water as the Yangtze River. God truly wants to work in heaven, but He has to wait for the earth to move before He can work.

A brother expressed it very well when he said, “God’s will is like a train engine, and our prayer is like the tracks of the train.” The train can go many places, but it can only travel along the tracks. The power of the engine is very great, and it can go east, west, south, or north. Yet it can only go where the tracks are laid. God is not without power, yet He is controlled by man’s prayer. All worthy prayers are prayers that pave the way for God’s will. Hence, if we do not take up the responsibility of prayer, we will frustrate the accomplishment of God’s will.

Every part of God’s will needs someone to carry it out, and He wants our will to become one with His will. The first step in carrying out His will is to pray out God’s will and utter His will through our prayer. From this we see that prayer is a work. There is no work more important than this work because prayer is the speaking of God’s will and the accomplishment of His will. Prayers that originate from our self-will are useless prayers. Prayers that are according to God’s will originate from God. He conveys His will to us through the Holy Spirit, and then we return the same thought to Him through our prayer. Prayers that are after God’s heart have God’s will as the starting point; man is merely the transmitting and responding organ. Prayer that originates from ourselves has no spiritual value.

Brothers and sisters, when we truly stand on the ground of the church and take up the responsibility of such a ministry of prayer before God, we will see God’s will carried out in the church where we are. The amount that the church prays will be the measure of the amount that God’s power is manifested. Consequently, the church has to learn to pray big prayers and make big requests. The prayer of the church is often very small; it prays only for ordinary problems. This is not enough. The church needs to have big prayers and make big requests. If the capacity of the church before God is small, it will restrict the power of God from being manifested. We know that the question of the overcomers is not quite resolved, and Satan is not yet thrown into the abyss. God must gain a vessel for His testimony before He can accomplish what He has set out to accomplish. The church must have big prayers to manifest our God. This is the ministry of the church.

The ministry of the church is prayer—not small prayers, but prayers that pioneer the way for God. God is accomplishing His work. But the church first prays and prepares the way before God finds the way. The church must have big prayers, serious prayers, and strong prayers. If prayers are centered around ourselves, our personal difficulties, and our small losses and gains, it will be difficult to open a way for God’s eternal will. Many things should drive us to dig deep. But above all, prayer should drive us to the utmost depth.

THE AIM OF OUR PRAYERS—THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CHRIST, THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND THE CHURCH

First Kings 8:22–53 gives a record of Solomon’s prayer. My burden here is that we would see the intrinsic significance of this prayer. If we would apprehend the intrinsic significance of Solomon’s prayer, we need spiritual wisdom and spiritual revelation.

Concerning God’s listening to the prayers of His elect, three things are stressed in verse 48: the holy land, typifying Christ as God’s allotted portion to the believers (Col. 1:12); the holy city, signifying the kingdom of God in Christ; and the holy temple, signifying God’s house, the church, on the earth. These three things—the holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple—are the three crucial things regarding God’s economy. This indicates that God will listen to our prayer in the way that our prayer to God must be toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s eternal economy.

The holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple are all types of Christ. Christ is our good land; Christ is our city, our kingdom; and Christ is the temple, God’s dwelling place. Today, our prayers should be aimed at the holy land, the holy city, and the holy temple. This means that our prayers should be aimed at the interest of God, that is, at Christ and the church as God’s interest on earth.

The spiritual significance of God’s interest is Christ Himself. This indicates that no matter for whom we are praying, our prayer must be aimed at Christ as God’s interest. We need to pray for the saints, but we should not aim our prayers at them. On the one hand we pray for them, but on the other hand we pray for them because of God’s interest. If in our prayer we aim at the one for whom we pray, this will bring in the enemy’s attack. This is a spiritual strategy in the spiritual warfare.

We need to remember that prayer involves three parties: us, God, and Satan. Sometimes when we pray for a certain person, Satan comes to attack him, and his situation becomes worse. The reason for this is that our interest is in that person, not in God’s economy. No matter for whom we are praying, we should aim our prayer at God’s Christ, who is God’s interest in His economy.

To pray properly, we must pray to God in the name of the Lord Jesus (John 16:24), aiming at God’s interest for His economy. By the expression “in the name of the Lord Jesus” I do not mean any traditional form of prayer. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray for the interest of God on earth, which is Christ as God’s portion to us, as God’s kingdom, and as God’s dwelling place. Our prayer should be altogether for God’s interest to fulfill God’s economy.

If we continue to engage ourselves in the work of prayer, we will become a flowing channel for God’s will; He will come to us whenever He has something that He wants us to pray about. God’s will is always seeking an outlet; God is forever seeking men to be the spokesmen for His will. If many people are raised up to do this work, God will accomplish many things through their prayers.

Fellowship Questions

1. Why is the prayer ministry of the church such a great responsibility?
2. How does understanding the prayer ministry of the church affect the way that we pray?
3. What do you think it means to aim our prayers at Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s eternal economy?

Excerpts taken from The Prayer Ministry of the Church, ch. 1; Life-study of 1 & 2 Kings, msg. 6; CWWN, Vol. 38, msg. 41

• In the matter of prayer, the person is the method. We must not only be those who pray, but we must be men of prayer.
• Prayer is our life and our living, not merely a thing or a work. A man of prayer is one whose living is absolutely one with their prayer and corresponds with their prayers.
• The life of God within us has a praying capacity that enables us to pray and that also causes us to desire to pray. If we learn to live in God and respond to His demand of holiness, the life of prayer in us will be healthy, and we will spontaneously have the desire and ability to pray.

THE MAN OF PRAYER

We know that in whatever we do, the results always depend on the kind of person we are. You may do the same thing someone else does, but when you do it, it turns out another way. Many consider the method the key to everything, but actually the person is more important than the method. The method is dead, but the person is living. Hence, it is not enough just to have a particular method; it is also necessary to have a particular person. If the person is not right, the method is useless regardless of how right it may be, for spiritual things are matters of life, and life does not depend on methods. Life merely expresses itself according to its nature. Thus, regarding spiritual matters, the person equals the method.

Needing to Be One Who Seeks God and God’s Will

If a person only knows how to seek after himself and his own desire, he may pray, but he is not a man of prayer. A man of prayer must become such that in all the universe he cares only for God and His will, having no other desire besides this. Sometimes even in God’s work we covet something for ourselves. Both our spirit and our heart have not yet been purified to the extent that we want only God and His desire; hence, we are not a man of prayer. We may pray, but as far as our being is concerned, we are not a man of prayer. Do we seek after our own interests or God’s? Are we for ourselves or for God? Do we want God to fulfill our desire or His desire? Sooner or later every one of us must be tested in our prayers. Unless one has been led by God to such a state of purity, he is not a man of prayer. He may pray many prayers, but they are of little value before God, and he still cannot be counted as one who works with God, cooperates with Him, prays to Him, and fulfills His will.

Needing to Be One Who Lives in God Always Having Fellowship with Him

It is not enough that a Christian live before God; he must also learn to live in God. In John 15:7 the Lord Jesus said, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” In this word the Lord showed that a man of prayer must be one who abides in Him. To live before the Lord is surely good, but it is quite possible that you and the Lord may still be two; the Lord is the Lord, and you are you. You can become one with Him only when you live in the Lord. Then you can say to the Lord, “Lord, it is not I alone praying here, but it is You and I, I and You, praying together. This is not just I praying before You, but much more, it is I praying in You. I am one who is united with You and who has become one with You. Thus, I can pray in Your name.”

If you would thus abide in the Lord, there would not be a moment of broken fellowship with the Lord. Spiritual fellowship is a flowing in the spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirit, our spirit and God’s Spirit—two spirits having mutual fellowship. In a proper prayer, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man always have mutual fellowship, mutual flowing; the two spirits have become one spirit. Fellowship with the Lord does not permit any barrier between you and the Lord. A barrier that is allowed to remain causes you to become more and more distant from God. 

Sometimes it may be because of a certain sin (not necessarily a big one) that we would not deal with or a preference or tie that we would not break off. These immediately become barriers between us and the Lord. Once we fall into this kind of situation, our spirit of prayer is quenched. This is because we are not in the Lord, and the fellowship between us and Him is lost. When the life of prayer is cut off, even if you exercise your mind to conceive a prayer or exercise your will to squeeze out a prayer, it is futile.

Needing to be One Who is Willing to Pay Any Price to Yield to All of God’s Demands

Another requirement of a man of prayer is that he must be willing to pay any price to yield to God’s every demand. There cannot be a single instance in which you meet God in fellowship that He does not demand anything from you. Every time you meet Him, He demands something from you. Please read the story of Abraham. From the beginning when he was met by God until he finally came to know God, there was not a single time God appeared to him that He did not strip him of something. We say that Abraham was one who inherited the blessings, yet when we read the stories of his dealings with God, we seldom see him receiving anything from God; rather, what we see over and over again are God’s strippings and His making demands upon him. There is one thing I can tell the children of God with full assurance: if God has not demanded something of you today, then you have not met Him today. 

Needing to be One Whose Living Corresponds to His Prayer

As a man of prayer, your living must be consistent, or must correspond, to what you pray. A man of prayer not only performs the action of prayer but also lives the life of prayer—his living is prayer. Many times we pray for a number of things, but after praying, we do not live according to the standard of life required by those things. This means that we go through the motions of prayer, but we are not men of prayer.

Therefore, please remember, inwardly speaking, prayer is our life, and outwardly speaking, prayer is our living. Prayer is neither a thing nor a work. Of course, in a sense, prayer is a work, but your being must be in the prayer and even must be the prayer. The point is this: real prayer has a condition; that is, if you want to have real prayers, your living should be in accordance with those prayers. There is no way for anyone to believe that your heart is really bearing the burden of the church if, as soon as prayer is over, you can go to watch a movie. Your living does not correspond to your prayer. If you are a man of prayer, your living will definitely be absolutely one with your prayer. Your living is your prayer. The life within is a life of prayer, and the living without is a living of prayer; thus you are a man of prayer.

THE LIFE OF PRAYER

This Life Being the Life of God within Us

After we have been saved, we have God living in us to be our life. This life is the life of prayer within us. The first function, the characteristic and the ability of this life, is to pray. Therefore, after being saved, the thing a proper Christian likes to do most is pray. Whenever Christians pray, they feel good inside, because a characteristic of the life within them is that it likes to pray. It not only demands prayer, but it also has the ability to pray.

Actually, we cannot teach a person to pray. The most we can do is point out a way, for the real ability to pray is hidden in the life of a Christian. As long as you are a saved one, there is such a life with such a function within you. Yes, we do teach the brothers and sisters to pray; but please remember, we can only teach because within them there is already a life with such a function. The God whom we have received has become our life within, and this life has a function; that function is to pray. As long as we do not restrict this life but give it the liberty and the opportunity to be exercised, then not only does it desire to pray; it will pray.

Whenever the fellowship between you and God is interrupted, this life in you is in a half-dead state; consequently, you dislike praying, and you are almost unable to pray. You must restore the fellowship with God and live in Him, thus causing the life within you to be resurrected. Thus, spontaneously you can touch the consciousness of prayer within, you have the desire and interest to pray, and you possess the ability to pray. You know what to say and how to say it, and you also know which word of prayer can touch God’s throne and hit the center of His heart. Others may not be able to teach you, but you know inside because this is a matter of the inward life. The life in you has the ability to enable you to pray. 

This Life Being Holy, Separated

This prayer life within us, because it is the life of God, is separated from everything that is unbecoming to God. This life, therefore, requires you to be separated from the world, and demands that you put aside anything that is outside God. If you want to be a man of prayer who can pray, is willing to pray, and who prays properly, you must agree with the demand of the life in you by putting aside whatever it wants you to put aside. Whenever you disagree even slightly with its demand for holiness, you put to death the life of prayer. It is not a matter of great or small but whether or not this life makes a demand in you. If it demands of you to forsake something that is outside God, then you should do it. If you always live in this life of prayer, you do not need much outward teaching on the part of men. The more you pray, the more this life in you is being exercised, and the more its function of separating becomes manifest. 

The most holy person is one who constantly prays before God. When he prays, the life in him becomes exercised and spontaneously brings forth the sanctifying function. The more he yields to the sanctifying demands, the more living the life of prayer in him becomes, and spontaneously he has a greater appetite for prayer. Furthermore, the more his ability to pray increases, the more his praises, thanksgivings, supplications, expressions, and even his utterance are special. Now his technique of prayer greatly excels what it was before. All these conditions prove that he has been continually yielding to the demands of holiness that were made by the life of prayer within him.

Therefore, we must clearly see that the life of God in every man of prayer is holy and separated. It rejects anything that does not correspond with the divine nature. This life requires that he be fitted wholly with the nature of God. It neither argues nor listens to arguments. If one does not take care of the requirement of the life of prayer within him, he puts it to death and cannot pray. On the contrary, the moment he agrees with its demands, the life of prayer is immediately enlivened.

This Life Having an Inherent Law of Prayer

Within every kind of life there are many laws. Such is the case with our physical life. Digestion is a law, and metabolism is another law. What is a law? A law is a natural ability that does not require you to control it by exercising your will. Similarly, in our life of prayer there is also a law of prayer. It contains such a natural ability that without your urging, it spontaneously desires to pray.

Remember, however, that although it is a law, it can be damaged by man just as the law of digestion and the law of metabolism can be spoiled by man. We all know that when any physical law is damaged, the result is sickness. Whenever the body is sick, it means that its law or laws have been violated. Likewise, if you do not respond to the demand of holiness that issues out of the life within you, this is a sickness that frustrates the law of prayer. With those brothers and sisters who seldom open their mouth to pray, without doubt they are sick in their life of prayer. It may be that they do not respond to the demand of holiness, do not follow the consciousness of holiness within, or refuse the darkness that is abhorred by the life within. This life is absolutely holy; therefore, it demands that you be holy. It also utterly hates sins; hence, it repeatedly gives you the sense of hating sins. Moreover, it fully loves light, so it always requires you to leave darkness. If you are willing to deal with these things, the life of prayer within you is immediately resurrected. Moreover, there is a law in this life that will operate in you and make you pray. You will be able to pray as well as enjoy praying, and whatever you pray will touch God. These are abilities inherent in the life of prayer.

Fellowship Questions

1. Why do you think that in prayer, the person is more important than the method? What is the difference between prayer being a method and prayer being who we are?
2. What do you think it means for our living to be absolutely one with our prayer and correspond to our prayers?
3. If the life of God in us always desires to pray, why is it that we sometimes dislike praying or feel unable to pray? How can we deal with the things that frustrate the life of prayer in us?

Excerpts taken from Lessons on Prayer, chs. 3-4

• The Lord Jesus was the first God-man, who set a pattern for us to follow. This God-man was a man of prayer, a man who was one with God, lived in the presence of God continuously, trusted in God, and in whom Satan had nothing.
• This God-man was a man of prayer whose prayers were divine and mystical.
• This God-man lived a life in which He was one with the Father, did not do anything for Himself, did not seek His own will, and did not seek His own glory.

A MAN OF PRAYER

The Lord lived as a man of prayer. He did not live as a common man praying common prayers to God, as a pious man, a so-called godly man, praying to God in a religious way, or as a God-seeking man praying to God for the divine attainments and obtainments. His being a man of prayer was not even as merely a Christ-seeker praying desperately to gain Christ in His excellency (Phil. 3:12-14, 8). Instead, He was a man in the flesh praying to the mysterious God in the divine, mystical realm. The Gospels tell us that He often went to the mountain or withdrew to a private place to pray (Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28). Divine is on God’s side. Mystical is on man’s side. On the one hand, Jesus was a man in the flesh, yet He prayed to the mysterious God in the divine and mystical way and realm.

He was a man of prayer, a man who is one with God (John 10:30). We may be a Christ-seeker, desperately praying to gain Christ, yet we may not be one with God. He was also a man living in the presence of God without ceasing (Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32). He said that He was never alone, but the Father was with Him. Every moment He saw His Father’s face. We may seek Christ, yet not live in the presence of God so closely and continuously without ceasing. Also, He trusted in God and not in Himself, under any kind of suffering and persecution. 

In John 14:30 the Lord said, “The ruler of the world is coming, and in Me he has nothing.” This means that in the Lord Jesus, Satan as the ruler of the world had no ground, no chance, no hope, no possibility in anything. Here was a man of prayer who said that Satan, the ruler of the world, had nothing in Him. Thus, Christ was a man of prayer, a man who was one with God, lived in the presence of God continuously, trusted in God in His suffering and persecution, and in whom Satan had nothing.

THE DIVINE FACTS IN THE MYSTICAL HUMAN LIFE OF THE FIRST GOD-MAN

All of the Lord’s prayers were divine facts. We need to ask if our prayers are divine facts. A wife may ask the Lord to take care of her family because her husband has lost his job. Such a prayer is not divine. Instead, she may pray, “Lord, as a housewife, I praise You and thank You that we are in Your hands. We trust in You in this circumstance.” This is divine prayer. If we pray, “Lord, today there is a need for people to go to Moscow,” this is not divine prayer. Instead, we should pray, “Lord, thank You that You are now spreading Your recovery to Russia. Lord, this is Your move.” This is divine prayer.

When we consider the Lord’s prayer in John 17, we can see what divine prayer is. We may pray for our need, but we have to pray about it in a divine way. We should pray divine prayers, not human prayers. All the prayers that Christ prayed were divine facts in His mystical human life. Although we are human, people should sense that there is something mystical about us. Our classmates, colleagues, or peers should sense that there is something about us that they cannot understand. This is because we are mysterious, mystical. The One who prayed the prayer recorded in John 17 was Jesus of Nazareth, a man in the flesh, yet His prayer was mystical.

Based upon this light we should consider our prayers. We pray many human and fleshly prayers, not divine prayers. No prayer is as high as the Lord’s prayer in John 17. He prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (v. 1). Christ’s prayer was divine. When He was dying on the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). He prayed to the Father for the forgiveness of His crucifiers. That was divine and mystical.

The pattern of the first God-man being a man of prayer shows that we should do everything in a divine way. A very critical part of the history of the first God-man was His prayer. All His prayers were divine, yet they were in a human life, making that human life mystical. He lived a mystical human life. A husband should love his wife divinely, not merely spiritually. This is because he does not love her in his way but in God’s way and not with his love but with God’s love. How could a man in the flesh love his wife in a divine way and with the divine love? This is mystical. We should be persons living a life that is divine yet mystical. Our life should be divine yet human—not merely human but mystically human. This is what is unveiled in the holy Word.

We have a concept concerning spirituality that blinds us. We need to see that we should not be merely spiritual but divine and mystical. Every believer today should be a divine and a mystical person. We should be divine yet so mysterious. Even those who are close to us should be able to sense that there is something about us that is mysterious and cannot be understood. The key is that although we are human, we live divinely. True spirituality should make us divine. This is higher.

Everything in our living should be divine and mystical. This is what we see in the Lord Jesus. When people saw what He did, they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these works of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Matt. 13:54-55). This is because all that He did was divine and mystical. God was living through Him. He was God manifested in the flesh. This is a great mystery. First Timothy 3:16 says that the great mystery of godliness is God manifested in the flesh. The divine is manifested in a mystical human way.

The title God-man indicates clearly that Jesus was a man, but He was living God. Today you are a God-man. This means that you are a man, yet you live God and express God. You are a man, yet it is God who lives in you. This is the significance of the title God-man. A God-man’s living is a man living God.

TRAINING HIS DISCIPLES TO LEARN FROM HIM IN THE MIRACLE OF FEEDING FIVE THOUSAND PEOPLE

Taking the Five Loaves and Two Fish,

Looking Up to Heaven, and Blessing Them

In the performing of the miracle of feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, He trained His disciples to learn from Him. In Matthew 11:29 the Lord told the disciples that they needed to learn from Him, indicating that He was their pattern.

Matthew 14:19 says that He took the five loaves and two fish and when He was going to bless them, He looked up to heaven. Looking up to heaven indicates that He was looking up to His Father in heaven. This indicates that He realized the source of the blessing was not Him. He was the sent One. The sent One should not be the source of blessing. The sending One, the Father, should be the source of blessing. According to this pattern, we have to realize that we are not the Sender but the ones sent by the Sender. Regardless of how much we can do, we should realize that we still need the blessing from the source, from our Sender, that we can pass on to the benefited ones.

Being One with the Father

His looking up to the Father in heaven indicated that as the Son on earth sent by the Father in heaven, He was one with the Father, trusting in the Father (John 10:30). This is a very important principle. Being one with the Lord and trusting in Him mean everything in our ministry. We should never go to minister the word by remaining in ourselves and by trusting in what we can do. If we trust in what we can do, we are finished. The blessing comes only by our being one with the Lord and trusting in Him.

Not Doing Anything from Himself

The Lord did not do anything from Himself (5:19). This was also a pattern to the disciples. He was the One through whom the entire universe was created, but He would not do anything from Himself. This is the denying of the self, which He taught so much. He said that anyone who follows Him must take up his cross and deny himself (Matt. 16:24). He lived a life of denying Himself.

Not Seeking His Own Will

The Lord did not seek His own will but the will of Him who sent Him (John 5:30b). First, He denied Himself; second, He rejected His idea, His intention, and His purpose. He would only seek the will of the One who sent Him. All of us should be on the alert for this one thing—when we are sent to do some work, we should not take that chance to seek our own goal. We should pray, “Lord, save me from going out to accomplish something according to my intention and idea.” The Lord Jesus never sought His own idea, His own purpose, His own concept, or His own intention. He purely sought only the Father’s will.

Not Seeking His Own Glory

The first God-man did not seek His own glory but the glory of the Father who sent Him (7:18). To be ambitious is to seek your own glory. In the service we render to the Lord in the church life, there is always our ambition. In John 7:18 the Lord told the Pharisees, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, this One is true, and unrighteousness is not in Him.” The Pharisees were seeking their own glory. According to the context of this verse, the Lord indicated to them that if they were not seeking their own glory, they would know that He was sent by His Father.

Going Up to the Mountain Privately to Pray

After performing the miracle [of feeding five thousand], the Lord went up to the mountain privately to pray (Matt. 14:23; cf. Luke 6:12).

The Lord did not remain in the issue of the miracle with the crowds but went away from them to be with the Father privately on the mountain in prayer. If we go to a certain place and have a great success, would we leave right away, or would we remain in this big success to enjoy it? We need to see and follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus. He did not remain in the issue of the great miracle that He performed. Instead, He went up to the mountain privately to pray. The word privately is very meaningful. This means He did not let the people know that He was going to pray. Otherwise, they would have followed Him. He went away from them to be with the Father privately in prayer. I like these three phrases: to be with the Father, on the mountain, and in prayer. We should learn from the Lord’s pattern here by exercising to be with Him on the mountain in prayer. His looking up to heaven means that He had no trust in Himself. His going up to the mountain means that He wanted to be with the Father in prayer.

To pray with others is good, but often we need to pray by ourselves. When we pray with others, we cannot enjoy the Lord as deeply as when we pray to the Lord privately. Even the Lord Jesus told us that when we pray we should enter into our private room and shut our door and pray to the Father who sees in secret (Matt. 6:6). Then we have the sensation of how intimate He is to us and how close we are to Him. We have to learn to leave the crowds, our family, our friends, and the saints in the church to go to a higher level on a “high mountain.” We have to go higher, far away from the earthly things on a lower level. We need to get to a higher level, separated from the crowd, to be with the Father privately and secretly to have intimate fellowship with Him. This is the significance of being on the mountain in prayer.

Fellowship Questions

1. What does it mean that the Lord Jesus not only prayed but was a man of prayer?
2. What are some characteristics of the Lord’s prayer in His human life?
3. In the record concerning the Lord Jesus feeding five thousand people, what can we see concerning His relationship with the Father? 
4. What can we learn from the pattern of the Lord Jesus as a man of prayer?
5. What is the significance of Jesus being with the Father on the mountain in prayer? How can we apply this to our own personal life with the Lord?

Excerpts taken from The God-man Living, chs. 10 and 14

• The best prayers are prayers to God as a friend, in which we and God are on the same level.
• We need to learn to linger in God’s presence, to allow Him to finish what He wants to speak.
• We need to learn to inquire and intercede, letting God speak within us so that we can express what is on God’s heart in our prayers.

PRAYING TO GOD AS A FRIEND

God Humbling Himself to Befriend Man

The Bible says that Abraham was the friend of God. In Genesis 18 the God of heaven came to earth in order to befriend Abraham. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament say that Abraham was a friend of God (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23). Very few people have a thorough and accurate concept regarding prayer. Very few know that we can pray to God just as we speak with other human beings.

In Genesis 18 God wanted Abraham to pray to Him, so He came to be Abraham’s friend. God did not lift Abraham up to the heavenly sanctuary of glory; instead, He humbled Himself and went to the lowly tent in which Abraham dwelt. God did not flaunt His prestige, majesty, or power. Abraham served cakes, a calf, curds, and milk, and God ate (vv. 1-8). God came to Abraham as an ordinary visitor.

God Telling Man the Things on His Heart in Fellowship

After God finished speaking, He rose up to leave, and Abraham walked with Him to send Him away (v. 16). Suppose a brother visits me in my home, and after our conversation he rises to leave, and I rise in order to walk with him. Although he walks out of the door, I do not want to leave him, so I walk farther with him until we reach the main street. This is how Abraham was with God. We should not think that God has nothing to do or that He has nothing to say. God has many things to do and to say, but He needs us to walk with Him, to send Him off, so that He can tell us what He wants to do.

Many of us have had such an experience. Suppose Brother A is troubled in his heart concerning a matter and goes to seek help from Brother B. Even though Brother B receives him, Brother A may not be able to speak about what is on his heart, because it is not easy to talk about matters that trouble the heart. After talking for a while, Brother A may rise to leave even though he still has something on his heart. If Brother B bids Brother A farewell, then Brother A will keep the matter that is on his heart. If Brother B is very close to Brother A and sees that Brother A is still troubled about something, he will walk with Brother A, not wanting to leave him. Brother A may say, “Please do not trouble yourself to walk any farther,” but Brother B will say, “I will walk just a few more steps.” It is at this time that Brother A will feel comfortable to bring up what is on his heart. We often cannot immediately disclose the matters on our heart. It is not until we rise to leave and our friend sends us off that we can disclose the things on our heart.

God wanted Abraham to do something, but in order to see if Abraham was willing, He did not bring it up quickly. If I want to ask a brother to help me, I would first talk with him to see how his heart is toward me. Only if he cares for me would I feel comfortable asking him to help me. This was the case when God spoke with Abraham. It was when Abraham walked with God to send God off and lingered in God’s presence that God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (v. 17).

God’s purpose was for Abraham to pray for Lot, but instead of being like a master commanding a servant, He was like a person needing a friend’s help. He said, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, how great it is; and their sin, how very heavy it is! I shall go down and see whether they have done altogether according  to its outcry” (18:20-21). Abraham immediately understood that God wanted him to pray for Lot, who dwelt in Sodom. God seemed to be speaking in a riddle; it was as if He had said something yet said nothing. Abraham was very wise and did not say, “God, Lot is still there; will You destroy him also?” Neither God nor Abraham mentioned Lot’s name, but Lot was their goal.

Prayer Being to Express God’s Heart

Let us look at how Abraham prayed that day. He asked God, “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed destroy…it?” (v. 24). God said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake” (v. 26). Abraham immediately subtracted five, saying, “Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five?” and God said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there” (v. 28). Then Abraham knew that there were not even forty-five righteous in the city. He therefore said, “Suppose forty are found there?” and God said, “I will not do it, because of the forty” (v. 29). Abraham was even clearer that there were not forty and subtracted another ten, saying, “Suppose thirty are found there?” and God said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there” (v. 30). Abraham knew again that there were not even thirty and said, “Suppose twenty are found there?” and God said, “I will not destroy it, because of the twenty” (v. 31). Then Abraham knew that there must not have been twenty and immediately said, “Suppose ten are found there?” and God said, “I will not destroy it, because of the ten” (v. 32). Then Abraham knew that the righteous ones whom God would not destroy must have been the family of his nephew Lot. Hence, he spoke no more. This is what makes prayer marvelous. God speaks the things on His heart, and we pray for them as His friends, but neither God nor we explicitly state the object of our concern. Both God and Abraham were concerned about Lot, yet neither mentioned Lot. This was the sweetness of that conversation between intimate friends.

The best prayers are prayers to God as a friend. Such prayers are not uttered by men who are far below a very high God. Such prayers are spoken by men to a God who is on their level. This is not man uplifting himself but God humbling Himself. It is not our going to God’s palace but God coming to our tent. Every real prayer is God condescending Himself in order to draw near to us, humbling Himself to come to us, and placing Himself on the same level that we are on so that we may be at ease to speak with Him.

PRAYER BEING TO BREATHE IN GOD

Appearing before God

In order to breathe in God through prayer, we must appear before God. The psalmist says, “When will I come and appear / Before God?” (Psa. 42:2). Do we appear before God when we pray? When we pray, we close our eyes not only to concentrate but also to stop our outward being. Our outward being often wanders with our eyes. By closing our eyes when we pray, we close the gate of our eyes, shut the door to the outside world, and turn the direction of our being to our spirit. After we stop our entire being and close the door to the outside world, we will be able to turn to the deepest part of our being and exercise our spirit. When we turn to exercise our spirit, we immediately touch God and appear before Him in our spirit.

Being Silent

After touching God in our spirit, we must learn the lesson of not opening our mouth quickly. We do not need to shout and cry when we touch God. We should be silent and calm. The more silent and calm we are, the better. The more intimate we are with a person, the more silent we can be when we are with him. Simply by looking at each other, our sentiments are conveyed without speaking. The same can be said concerning one who is experienced in touching God. When he touches God, he is silent. As we touch God in our spirit, the best thing to do is to be silent before Him.

Inquiring

When we open our mouth, we do not need to ask or beg, but we can inquire. Many brothers and sisters have never inquired of the Lord. They only ask and beg. They say, “God, my son is sick. I have this need and that lack.” Their asking turns into begging: “Heal my son. Take care of me. Give me what I need.” What is this? This is begging. These are not good prayers. The best prayer is inquiring prayer. As we touch God, wait in silence, behold His loveliness, and converse with Him, we can ask Him, “Would You like me to mention a certain matter now?” This is the sweetest kind of prayer.

When Abraham stood before Jehovah (Gen. 18), he did not open his mouth quickly. He waited before God, inquired of Him, and looked at Him. There are times when we do things according to the index of a person’s eyes; we speak according to the expression on their face. This is how we should pray. The psalmist expressed his desire: “To dwell in the house of Jehovah / All the days of my life, / To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple” (Psa. 27:4). We must turn to our spirit, behold Him, and then inquire of Him.

We must learn to be an inquiring person in our prayer. We should ask the Lord, “Can I bring up this subject at this time?” We should look at His eyes. If He is not happy, we should not continue. If He has an expression of approval, we can proceed by asking how we should pray. This is what it means to inquire. The best prayer is inquiring prayer, but inquiring can only happen when a person is calm. If we have never touched God and have never been calm before Him or never beheld His loveliness, we do not know the meaning of inquiring.

Interceding

We also should learn to participate in intercessory work. If time permits and we are able to spend more time before God, He will surely tell us things that concern Him. As soon as we know these things, we need to do the work of intercession. Abraham stood before God. As he remained in His presence, God seemingly said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? I have to let him know that I will destroy Sodom. But there is a child of mine in Sodom. On the one hand, I will destroy Sodom; on the other hand, I want to save Lot. This is My desire.” Once Abraham heard this, he immediately began his intercessory work before God. Abraham’s intercession was absolutely in the form of inquiring; he did not ask or beg. Abraham kept inquiring all the way to the end. This is the best kind of intercession. As we remain in God, muse upon Him, worship Him, and praise Him, He reveals His desire to us, and we intercede by inquiring.

Allowing God to Finish His Speaking

We also need to allow God to finish what He is speaking. This was what Abraham did. He prayed, but God spoke. The Scripture says, “Jehovah went away as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham” (v. 33). In his prayer Abraham did not finish speaking and then walk away. Rather, Jehovah finished speaking and then left. Many times as soon as we finish our speaking, we say Amen. We have finished, but God has not finished. This is a pitiful condition. We have never learned to absorb God, to receive God, and to breathe in God. We pray in a wild and reckless way. We have never been trained in the matter of prayer. We have never surrendered in this matter. We have never allowed God to speak. Consequently, we do not gain much God at the end of our prayers. We have not absorbed Him or received very much of Him.

In summary, when we come to God to breathe Him in, we must first turn to our spirit to touch Him. We should be calm, behold Him, inquire of Him, and learn to wait on Him. We should also muse upon Him, worship Him, praise Him, and learn to intercede before Him. Later, we should allow Him to finish His speaking. Then we can let Him know that we are satisfied. This is the best kind of prayer. It is a prayer that receives and absorbs God. If we always pray in this way, we will surely receive and appropriate much more of God, and He will surely be our real enjoyment. This is what it means to enjoy God through our prayer. May the Lord graciously enable us to live in this reality!

Fellowship Questions

1. Why do you think the Bible calls Abraham the friend of God? What does it mean to pray to God as a friend? 
2. Why is it important that we linger in God’s presence when we spend time with Him?
3. How can we be an inquiring person in our prayer?
4. What does it mean to do the work of intercession in our prayer?
5. How can we practice allowing God to finish His speaking in our fellowship with Him?

Excerpts taken from The Meaning and Purpose of Prayer, ch. 2; How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, ch. 5

• We need to learn to be directed by the Lord in our prayers, instead of directing the Lord by our own proposals and according to our own opinions.
• We can cooperate with the Lord by faithfully praying according to the burdens that we have received from Him until they are discharged.

CONTACTING THE LORD

The matter of contacting the Lord involves specific principles. It is possible to have morning revival every day and to pray every day without contacting the Lord. Many of our prayers do not result in our contacting the Lord, and thus, they are not beneficial. Hence, we must learn the principles involved in contacting the Lord.

Not Directing the Lord

The Lord changed water into wine in [John] 2. The major principle in [this] case is that we must not direct the Lord when we contact Him. All authority must be in His hands. Hence, both the timing and the way we do things must be determined and directed by Him, not by us.

When the wine ran out at the wedding feast in Cana, Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to the Lord, “They have no wine” (v. 3). She said this in order to prompt the Lord to do something. Although she charged the Lord to do something, she was rebuffed. The Lord said, “Woman, what do I have in this that concerns you? My hour has not yet come” (v. 4). Having learned some lessons before God, Mary, after she was rebuffed, said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do” (v. 5). She realized that it was the Lord who should decide, not she; that it was the Lord who should give counsel, not she; and that it was the Lord who had the final word, not she.

Sometimes we feel that we have a need when we draw near to the Lord in the morning. If we have learned the lesson, we will know that we must not be too quick to bring this need to the Lord. If we know that we have a need, the Lord also must know; hence, instead of making a proposal, we should wait for Him in His presence. He knows our need better than we do, and He wants to take care of it more than we do. There is no need for us to make a proposal or to counsel the Lord. Those who can pray in the Lord’s presence without making a proposal know how to pray. This is not an easy matter.

This is a very good lesson to learn. When we go to the Lord, we seldom give Him the chance to speak. We normally say, “Lord, do this; Lord, do that. Look at the condition of the church. Revive the brothers and sisters.” The more we pray in this way, the drier we are within, and the less we touch the Lord’s presence. The feeling of dryness and a lack of His presence are the Lord’s way of saying, “What do I have in this that concerns you? My hour has not yet come. I will take interest in, be responsible for, and solve these matters, but I will decide when and how. I have My timing; I am not under your direction.”

It was necessary for water to be changed into wine, but the Lord knew about this need better than Mary. The church needs to be revived and the believers need to be transformed, but the Lord knows about these needs better than we. The lesson we must learn is to worship and honor Him as the Lord. We must listen to what He says and do what He wants. We must not make many proposals in our prayers. This is the first principle that we must learn in contacting the Lord in prayer.

Human Opinions Frustrating the Power of the Lord from Bringing About a New Beginning

Another case reveals that human opinions frustrate the Lord’s power. Chapter 11 shows how human opinions frustrate the Lord’s power. Martha and Mary sent word to the Lord, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick” (v. 3). This was an expression of their opinion in order to get the Lord to come heal their brother Lazarus. But the Lord did not respond. He heard their cry, but He did not do anything. The Lord loved these three siblings, and He heard Martha and Mary’s cry, but He remained in the place where He was for two days. He did not do anything until Lazarus died and was buried (vv. 5-6, 17). The first thing that Martha did when she saw the Lord was to complain that He was late. She said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21). Although she complained because of the Lord’s delay, the Lord taught her to not depend on her timing but on Himself. The Lord said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (v. 25). He meant that Lazarus’s condition was not dependent upon whether He came early or late. Thus, even if Lazarus was dead, he could be resurrected because the Lord had come. The Lord Jesus is the resurrection. When we have Him, we have everything. The Lord’s work is not dependent upon our timing.

This is a very good lesson, but Martha did not understand the Lord’s words. The Lord said, “He who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live; and everyone who lives and believes into Me shall by no means die forever. Do you believe this?” (vv. 25-26). Martha immediately said, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God” (v. 27). Martha did not believe the Lord’s word; she believed something else. The Lord spoke a revelation, but Martha focused on her understanding. She did not hear the Lord’s revelation because of her opinions. Martha was a person full of opinions.

Human opinions frustrate the manifestation of the Lord’s resurrection power. When we draw near to the Lord in prayer, we must learn the lesson of stopping our opinions. Whether the wine has run out or a person has been dead for four days, we do not need to counsel the Lord. We should simply give it to the Lord and hear what He has to say. The Lord is everything. He gives life to the dead and calls the things not being as being (Rom. 4:17). He is the resurrection and  the life (John 11:25). We do not need to say this or that; we should simply listen to Him. An opinion is a problem. Many who draw near to the Lord have a difficult time learning this lesson.

BURDEN AND PRAYER

Every child of God should have some God-given burden. No child of God can say that God has never given him or her a burden. However, burdens can only be received from God when our spirits are open to Him. An open spirit to God is the condition for receiving burdens from God. Having received a burden, we must learn to discharge it faithfully through prayer. When we have discharged the first burden, we will receive a second, and when the second is discharged, we will receive a third. Therefore, the most important thing is to open our spirits to God. We should say to God, “I open myself before You to pray.” Because of our unfaithfulness we often do not receive any burdens; therefore, if we want to be those who bear God’s burdens, we must be very sensitive and not reject any feeling that comes from Him. If we feel we should pray for something, we should do it immediately. At the outset, these feelings may be faint, but they will gain in strength as we go on. If we quench the Spirit and do not release our burden through prayer, we will lose our burden. O brothers and sisters, if we hope to be of any use to God, we must recover our lost burdens.

Remember that a burden is what you know, not what you have to discover. If you have a burden, you know it. It is wrong to look inward to see whether or not you have a burden. A burden is known rather than found. It is of great importance to recognize this fact. There is no profit in introspection. The greatest damage a Christian can suffer comes from introspection; it will cheat you. It is not necessary to look for a burden day and night. Whether or not you have a burden will be apparent—either you have a burden or you do not. In both cases you will know; there is no need to discover one. If you have to turn inward to find one, you do not have a burden. There is no need to ask anything. If you have it, you will know. If anything weighs upon you, that is your burden.

While it is true that the burdens we have are from God and that our burden is God’s will, it is also true that our knowledge mainly governs our burdens initially. However, after one has knowledge, it does not necessarily mean that he will have a burden. We may know about the condition and everything else related to certain brothers and sisters yet not have any feeling for them or be stirred up within. We have the knowledge, but we do not have the burden. 

Since prayer is a Christian ministry and an important ministry, a question arises: When there is a heavy burden to pray, do we express it through words, or should we be quiet and silent? Can we just bear our burdens silently before God? We believe that if God gives us a prayer burden, then He wants it to be uttered. If we have only a few disjointed words, we should express ourselves with these words. In the spiritual realm, it is an amazing principle that utterance counts. God takes account not only of what we believe but also of what we say. Our Lord said to the Canaanite woman, “Because of this word, go. The demon has gone out of your daughter” (Mark 7:29). The few words the woman uttered caused the Lord to work.

But very often our difficulty is that even when we are conscious of a burden to pray, we do not know how to pray when we kneel down. We know that something is weighing within us, but we do not know how to pray. There is a burden in our spirit, but we do not know what to pray. We need to realize that our burden is a matter of the spirit, whereas our comprehension of the burden is a matter of the mind. Some people feel that they have a burden but do not know what it is. This is because their spirit has not yet touched their mind. Therefore, when their spirit has a burden, their mind does not comprehend the burden. How can contact between the spirit and the mind be established? It is quite simple. When you kneel down to pray, do not hold on tenaciously to one thing. Pray for many things and from many directions. After praying a few sentences for one thing, you may feel that it is not the right thing to pray about. You should drop it and change to another subject. You may have to change your subject two, three, or four times. Or you may become clear after you come to the second subject. You may also have to mention five or six things before you feel that you have touched something that releases your burden; once you pray for this, your mind and your spirit become linked together. You should then pray specifically for that matter in order to release your burden. Once you pray this way, you will feel released, and when you have released your first burden, you will be ready to receive a second burden from God.

Many Christians cannot be used by God in the prayer ministry because they are over-burdened. They have never released any of their burdens. God gives them a burden to pray, and they may know what it is; their mind and their spirit may be connected, yet they do not pray. Instead, they allow the burden to become heavier and heavier until they are so crushed that they cannot bear it any longer; the feeling for the burden will be gone, and they can no longer pray. Oh, brothers and sisters, the work of God will be seriously hampered if we do not have a free spirit to serve as instruments for His use. If we asked someone to help us with a certain job but found that his hands were full, it would be useless to seek his aid. In the same way, if we are weighed down by many burdens, how can God commit anything further to us? This is why we must release our burdens. The release of the burden will set us free, and God will be free to give us additional burdens. Without this, we will not be able to fulfill a ministry of prayer before the Lord. The ministry of prayer requires a liberated spirit. If we have a burden and do not pray, eventually it will cost us our prayer ministry. We must, therefore, devote time to fulfill our ministry of prayer. Today God needs the cooperation of His church on the earth, and we can cooperate with Him through prayer. May there be a way for the working out of His will!

Fellowship Questions

1. Consider if you have had experiences of directing the Lord versus being directed by the Lord in your prayers. How can we practice being directed by the Lord when we pray?
2. What does it mean to release our God-given burdens through prayer? Why is this matter so crucial? 
3. How can we know what we should pray for, and what words to utter in our prayers? 

Excerpts taken from The Meaning and Purpose of Prayer, ch. 4; CWWN, vol. 38, “Burden and Prayer,” ch. 50

• To pray is to absorb God and to express God.
• We can absorb God by beholding His face and lingering in His presence, drawing near to contact God according to our true condition.
• We can express God by speaking what He has spoken within us. 

TO ABSORB GOD

First, prayer is to absorb God; prayer causes man to obtain God. God is reality; hence, He is contactable and obtainable. The God whom we worship is not doctrine, theory, philosophy, or ideology, nor is He an empty character or a vain idol. The God whom we worship is Spirit; He is a real spiritual entity. He is as real as air, water, and sound. Just as air, water, and sound are in the universe, so also God, who is Spirit, is in the universe. We can worship Him, and we can also contact, absorb, and obtain Him.

Ironing is an example. Clothes that are placed under an electric iron absorb heat from the iron and, as a result, get hot. This illustration of absorbing heat through contact with an electric iron explains the meaning of prayer. To pray is to contact God and to absorb Him in that contact. Thus, the importance of prayer does not depend on how much we say to God or on how much we cry out to Him but on how much we contact Him. The more we contact God, the more we will absorb Him, and the more we absorb Him, the more we will enjoy God and salvation.

Apart from God, we have nothing. He does not give us some of His light, salvation, power, or grace; rather, what He gives is just Himself (Psa. 27:1). He is light, salvation, power, and grace. Hence, light, salvation, power, and grace are inseparable from Him. For example, electricity is the electric light in a lamp, the electric heat in an iron, and the electric power in a fan. Electricity is light to meet one need, heat to meet another need, and power to meet yet another need. Similarly, light is God, salvation is God, power is God, and grace is God. Every spiritual need that we have is God Himself. God has not given us anything besides Himself. Hence, if we lose God, we lose everything; that is, we have nothing.

The saints often say, “I am too weak!” We should not be surprised that we are weak, for we can never be strong. In order to make us strong, God will not give us strength, but He will give us Himself. It is inaccurate to think that by pursuing the Lord, we can grow until we are strong. Our strength depends on God; we can be strong only by contacting Him. An iron that is plugged into an electric socket needs at least two to three minutes to become warm and much longer to become hot. If it is unplugged for one minute, the iron will no longer be hot. Similarly, if a person does not pray, he does not contact God and therefore cannot be strong.

Many believers have the natural concept that before they can pray and draw near to God, they must wait until their condition improves or until their inner feeling is strong. This concept is not according to the meaning of prayer. To pray is to come to God just as we are. The closer we are to our true condition, the better. We do not need to wait for anything, change anything, or prepare anything. Even if we are weak, confused, sad, and speechless, we can still come to God.

God is everything to us. The expectation to be strong and have words for prayer without contacting God is vain. God does not want us to have such expectations. He is not concerned about whether we are bad, weak, or wrong. Our condition does not bother Him. He is concerned only about our seeing and contacting Him.

We usually groom ourselves before we meet others, and we pretend while we are with them. We do not need to pretend when we come to God. A brother who just lost his temper should bring that temper to God. Even if his spirit is low and he cannot rise up to pray, he should still come to God. We do not need to pretend, and God does not want us to pretend. The more that we are in our true condition when we pray, the better. Our condition is our condition. To change ourselves is human work. We do not need to change in order to contact God. Our need is God and to let Him change us.

If we would spend some time to pray every day in order to absorb God, the salvation of His countenance will become the salvation of our countenance (Psa. 42:5, 11). Perhaps a sister is very sorrowful and can only sigh in grief and sorrow during the twenty minutes that she spends in God’s presence. However, after twenty minutes her countenance will change, and she will become joyful. Our countenance manifests the salvation that comes forth from God’s countenance. Because we spend time face to face with God, the salvation of His countenance becomes the salvation of our countenance.

The first meaning of prayer is to absorb God. When we pray, we should behold His glorious face and linger in His presence to worship, praise, give thanks to Him, and muse upon Him. We should think of His works and His person and not look at our condition or our environment. By looking to God, waiting on Him, and musing upon Him, we can absorb Him into us.

TO EXPRESS GOD

The first meaning of prayer is to absorb God, and the second meaning is to express God. These meanings are related. To express God means to let Him speak, that is, to let God be expressed. Prayer is not our speaking or expressing ourselves. Prayer is our letting God speak and express Himself.

We should speak when we pray; however, the question is, What do we say? In our prayer we should say what God is saying within us. God speaks within us, and to pray is to repeat what He has spoken back to Him. This is the principle of Psalm 27:8: “When You say, Seek My face, / To You my heart says, Your face, O Jehovah, will I seek.” Such prayer is according to God’s speaking within us. Therefore, the words we utter in prayer are an expression of the speaking within us. Prayer is not our asking for something through speaking; it is our expressing what God has spoken within us. Hence, our prayer becomes God’s expression. This is real prayer.

For example, we hear that the church needs to pray for a certain special meeting or for the revival of the church. Just as we begin to pray, we sense a word from the Lord telling us something concerning our inner condition and our situation. We should stop praying and forget about the revival of the church or the special meeting and follow the inner sense; we should speak the words that the Lord has spoken. If we sense the Lord’s rebuke, saying, “You are full of the flesh,” we should say, “Lord, I am full of the flesh.” If we sense that the Lord is saying, “You are full of the self,” we should immediately say, “Lord, I am full of the self.”

In Psalm 27:4 David said that he desired to behold the beauty of Jehovah and “inquire in His temple.” David did not say “cry out” or “beseech” but “inquire.” To inquire is to ask God. Abraham’s prayer in Genesis 18 is a good example of inquiring. When God told Abraham that He would judge the sinful city of Sodom, Abraham said, “Will You indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed destroy…it?” (vv. 23-24). We would have said, “God, You must save Sodom. There are fifty righteous men in that city; hence, You must save them.” Abraham did not pray in this way; rather, he inquired about what God would do if there were fifty righteous men in the city, and what He would do if forty-five were righteous, and God told Abraham what He would do. When Abraham inquired about ten righteous men, God said, “I will not destroy it, because of the ten” (vv. 28-32). By this, Abraham understood God’s intention.

Although it was Abraham who continued to inquire in that prayer, it was mainly God speaking, not Abraham. Hence, at the end of the chapter the Bible says, “Jehovah went away as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham” (v. 33). The best and most valuable prayer is not one in which we speak but one in which God speaks. The best and most valuable prayer is not one in which we cry out or beseech but one in which we inquire and let God speak. To cry out is to tell God the things of man, but to beseech is to beg for the things of God. The best prayer is to inquire. To inquire is to let God speak so that the words spoken are God’s speaking within man, God’s expressions. This is the best prayer.

LEARNING TO ABSORB GOD AND EXPRESS

If we want to learn lessons on prayer, we must first learn to absorb God. We should not regard God as being so high while we are so low. This is not according to God’s revelation. A prayer of revelation is one in which we do not consider our failures or weaknesses. Rather, in spite of how distressed or burdened we may be, we set our eyes on God and turn our heart to Him. Instead of caring about our condition, we enter into God’s presence to contact God by looking to Him, beholding Him, praising Him, giving thanks to Him, worshipping Him, and absorbing Him. This is a sweet lesson. If we would learn this lesson, we will enjoy God’s riches and taste His sweetness. If we would spend a little time to enter into God’s presence and absorb Him every day, we will receive light and power; we will be peaceful, bright, strong, and empowered.

When we learn the first lesson [of absorbing God], we will learn the second lesson [of expressing God] spontaneously. It is regrettable that some saints have neither learned to contact God nor to let God speak and express His desire when they pray. There is no need for the elders to pray in tears when the church encounters problems, saying, “Lord, look at this problem. Please remember that we are weak and foolish; we do not have much spiritual weight, nor do we know how to administrate the church. Lord, have mercy on us and solve this problem for us.” Such desperate prayers cannot be maintained. This is the condition of most prayers: they neither contact nor express God. Some sisters cry in prayer before the Lord whenever their husband has problems, their children are sick, or a family member is in an accident. They utter many words, but it is merely their speaking; they do not give the Lord a chance to speak. Even if the Lord were to say a few words, they would misunderstand His words. Most people pray in this way. Many pray, but few touch the Lord, contact Him, wait before Him, let Him speak, or let Him express Himself. Such prayers in which God does not express Himself are abnormal. In a normal prayer God speaks to us. Prayer should not be to take care of the problems that are on our heart but to contact God.

Our problem is that we often go to God in prayer, but we do not let Him speak to us. We must understand that the best prayer is not one in which we speak to God but one in which God speaks to us. The more we touch God in our prayer, the more He will speak to us. What matters is not how much we speak to God, but how much God speaks to us. What matters is how much we let God appear to us, speak to us, touch us, and point out our inner condition. We should drop all our burdens, forget our requests, and pay attention only to what God is touching in us. Then we should pray only according to that point. Whatever God asks for is what we say. Then our prayer will be His speaking, His expression. The most genuine and valuable prayer is one in which God expresses His prayer through man.

To pray by letting God speak and express Himself is to pray according to the Lord’s word in John 15:7. When we abide in the Lord, have fellowship with Him, and let Him speak within us, what we ask will be according to His words. Such prayer is not out of our self, nor is it initiated by us; rather, it is out of the Lord, and He is its source. We are not uttering our own words but the words that the Lord has spoken within us. Such prayer is not the expression of our will but the Lord’s will, and it is not our asking apart from the Lord. Such prayer is our praying to the Lord by abiding in Him and being mingled with Him. Such prayer is the issue of our mingling with the Lord. This is the best prayer!

Fellowship Questions

1. What does it mean to absorb God in our prayer? How can we practice absorbing God through prayer?
2. What does it mean to express God in our prayer? How can we practice expressing God through prayer?
3. In the matter of prayer, why does absorbing God come before expressing God?

Excerpts taken from The Meaning and Purpose of Prayer, chs. 1-2

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