- 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
- 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?
- 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?
- 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