- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
Pray about your Praying.
By J. C. Williams.
Prayer is the breath of the new creation. To stifle prayer is to strangle every spiritual aspiration, and when stifled it will not be long before the actions become maimed and powerless. Any slackness in Christian profession has first of all expressed itself in loss of prayer power. If we are strong in the secret prayer chamber we are strong in public, if strong in prayer we are strong in the ways of life.
Prayer is a vital expression of our union with God. No duty is more pressed upon us than intercourse with God, it is the source of all we do. “Pray without ceasing”, “watch and pray”. Note the insistent way in which Paul asked for prayer from the converts in the early Church.
Hezekiah was moved to prayer on his throne and prayer swept through the city. The temple was cleansed, worship restored and the people were moved to repentance. All this started in the heart of the king in prayer. We have no conception of the potential power of prayer. Daniel so moved unseen spiritual forces that an archangel left his place to meet his need, because he had prayed on earth.
Why should we pray? Prayer supplies the answers. It is a hard, exhausting life. When our Lord performed a miracle virtue passed out of Him. If we are to be people of prayer we must be prepared to pray.
Why is it so hard to pray? Because the world atmosphere stifles divine desires, it is contrary to the spirit of prayer. If we live and move in a poisonous atmosphere it will poison our spiritual life. The disciples came to the Master and besought Him to teach them to pray. Jesus said, “Enter in . . . shut the door”. He who would walk with God cannot fulfill his function unless he communes with God. We cannot bow to idols and bow in the presence of God. There must be the barrier of the shut door, heart and spirit shut in with God. Not the turning of the key in a monkish cell, but in spirit turning the key on the world and refusing to be moved by its ways.
It is hard to pray because we must use our brains, and the mind is the last fortress of the devil. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Eph. 4 v 23). We need the “mind of Christ". We must use our minds in prayer. Pray for the clarifying of the mind in prayer. Many pray without any idea what they are going to ask for. There is not sufficient contemplation and meditation. If the angels cannot enter the presence of God unless their faces are covered, how much less dare we rush into His presence with unprepared minds? It is those who pray in the silence of the inner chamber who have moved the world. If we would stand high in the Kingdom of Heaven we must get low before God.
A prayer-less life is an expressionless life. If I want a proof that prayer is the deepest expression of the spirit I find it in the fact that it is the hardest. By nature man is averse to prayer. How difficult it is to pray, to have the will and inclination to pray.
There are two forces that lead to prayer, one propels and the other draws. One is fear, the other is love. It was fear born in the pit that sent our first parents into hiding where only the Voice from on High could penetrate. Fear drives a man to prayer, but love impels us.
Love draws. The cords of Calvary have a drawing power. It is an evidence of the leading power of the Holy Spirit when men are moved to prayer.
We know not what to ask, for we know not how to pray. The way we learn how to pray is to pray. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. Do we shut the door and prostrate ourselves before God?
Our souls are dry, hard and senseless, and we feel it impossible to pray. It is hard to pray, for to pray is to fight. Now instead of bemoaning our condition let us turn the drought and deadness in prayer into prayer, and tell the Lord we cannot pray. As we give expression to this it will be a defiance against the powers of darkness, and as we hold on to God we shall eventually break through the opposing forces and learn the lesson of doing so. Now is the time to watch and pray.
When we are on our knees and the heavens are as brass, it is an indication that we enter a spiritual realm, and that we must fight. It is not necessary for us to rend the heavens to reach that realm. We are already seated in heavenly places in Christ, but when we pray we take a weapon in our hand. To wait on God is not to remain passive, but to expect, as we would expect a train when waiting at a station.
Pray more about your prayers.
It is hard to sit down and examine our prayers. See where the selfish interest stands. See how far we have prayed amiss (Jas. 4 v3). Self should have no place in our prayers, our love must be sanctified before it avails. It is hard to pray because it is hard to bring our minds and brains into subjection. We can only pray as we have vision of the need of the world and the spirit of love for the world that Christ has. We are a royal priesthood. We can only be intercessors as we see the need, and we can only see the need as we are in touch with God.
Watching is as important as prayer. Prayer is the result of spiritual alertness, and alertness is the result of spiritual life. The fainting man is unconscious of his surroundings, he is alive, but unconscious. Never lose consciousness of the power and presence of God, therefore pray and faint not. The breeze of the Holy Spirit may descend to-day, are we ready and on the alert? If the breeze came and the sails were not set and the sailors asleep, they would miss the opportunity. May be a missionary is struggling, maybe a brother is in sorrow and depression, and God is looking for someone who is ready to pray. God maybe looking for an intercessor. Are we ready? Pray!
The Lord Jesus prayed with such power that His wondering disciples stood in groups and marvelled, and when He had finished, such was the magnetic power that these men came and said, “Lord, teach us to pray”. How can we pray like this? The first word He said was “Father”. Peter, James and John, you must know the Father, you can only pray in the Holy Spirit when, through Jesus Christ, you have access to the Father. To pray in the Spirit is to pray with the consciousness of the Trinity. The need of the Church is to know the Father, through the Son, that is why the Holy Spirit was given.
The first expression in a natural birth is a cry. Prayer is a cry. “Behold, he prays" is the evidence and is the privilege of every child of God. The Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”. To cry to God is great gain. If in our extremity we can lift up our hearts and say “Father", it is not the language, but the throb of the spirit, a dependent resting on God.
How much time do we give to prayer? In Luke 1 v7-10, we get a picture of the High Priest as he enters the inner court. As he lifts up the censer a fragrant incense rises to God, while away behind in the outer courts the people join him in his intercessory service, bringing their personal needs, and using him as a mediator according to the Law. What a picture of the prayer-life of the Church. Jesus within the veil, seated where His Father can hear, Jesus with the marks of warfare on His body, with His pierced hands, ever living to make intercession, and below the multitudes of praying people.
The reason there is life in our prayers is because of Him. If we have power in secret prayer it is because He is there. His work was finished on Calvary, but He ever lives to make intercession, and our fruit is in Him. He has never wasted a moment since He took His seat there. His life is to pray for us.
If the Church would give herself to prayer, what would it mean to the poor lost innumerable multitude of the unsaved? God would rend the heavens and come down. Take note of your prayer. If you do not, the devil will take it out of your mind. We have no conception of what God has in His mind for those who wait on Him.
He puts the key of His treasure house in our hand, “Wait on God".
* * * * * * * * *