LET US PRAY (Section 1)
by Watchman Nee
I. WHAT IS PRAYER?
A. Prayer is the most wonderful act in the spiritual realm as well as a most mysterious affair.
1. The power of prayer lies not in how much we pray but in how much our prayers
are in accordance with the principle of prayer.
a. God's people must pray before God himself will rise up and work: His will
is only to be realized through the prayers of those who belong to Him.
b. Earth must bind first before heaven will bind; earth must loose first before heaven will loose. God has His original will in heaven realized on earth when His people on earth get in accord to His will and pray for it to come to pass. pg 5-6 Matt 16:19 & 18:18
*All the wills of God are eternal. (According to Watchman Nee.)
B. Prayer is the union of the believer's thought with the will of God. Prayer is simply speaking
the will of God through the mouth of a believer.
C. Prayer is the occasion wherein to express our desire for God's will. Prayer means that our
Will is standing on God's side. Aside from this, there is not such thing as prayer. pgs. 7-8
God's purpose is for us to be so filled with His will that we forget our own interests.
D. Prayer is not:
1. The expressing of our wish for God to yield to our petition and fill up our selfish desire.
2. The praying for our needs.
A serious error concerning prayer prevails in our common understanding, which is to say, that we often think of prayer as an outlet for expressing what we need--as a cry to God for our help. We do not see that prayer is the asking of God to fulfill His needs. We ought to understand that God's original thought is certainly not the letting of believers achieve their own aims through prayer, rather it is God accomplishing His purpose through the prayers of the believers.
In heaven and on earth there is only one prayer which is legitimate and acceptable to God--which is asking Him to fulfill His will. Our needs should be lost in God's will. pg. 9
The question is now no longer whether your need is met but whether God's will is done.
3. The forcing of the Lord to change His will and perform what He is unwilling to do.
4. The attempt to restore heaven's heart.
a. It is a most erroneous concept to hold that God being hard, we therefore need to engage in combat against Him in prayer so as to subjugate Him and thereby cause Him to alter His decision. pg 12.
b. We strive before God in conflict only because His will is being blocked by either men or the devil, and so, we greatly desire Him to execute His will in order that His own determinate will may not suffer because of opposition.
c. True, we seem to be striving against God as though to compel Him to change His will to suit our pleasure, but in reality is against all that is opposed to God so that He may fulfill His will. pgs. 12-13
E. Prayer does not alter that which God has determined. It never changes anything; it merely achieves what He has already foreordained.
1. What about Hezekiah? II Kings 20:1 - 8
Answer: God had already determined it to be His will for him to live 15 more years. However, Hezekiah had to pray or else he would have died.
2. What about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? Matt 26:36 - 45
If Christ had resisted the will of God, could the crucifixion have been delayed or postponed or canceled? We know the will of God was for it to happen. Could Christ have denied the will of God? Did He have a will to surrender to God? "Not my will but thine be done."
3. Salvation of Men? John 1:7, Matt 18:12 -14, II Peter 3:9, I Tim 2:2-6, Acts 17:30
F. Prayerlessness does effect a change.
1. Because God will let many of His resolutions go suspended due to the lack from His people of prayerful cooperation with Him.
2. God will temporarily permit Satan to be on the offensive should His people forget His will and fail to show sympathy by cooperating with Him. pg 7
G. True prayer is a real work. pg 10
Praying according to God's will and praying only for His will is indeed a self-denying work. Unless we are completely weaned from ourselves, having not the slightest interest of our own but living absolutely for the Lord and seeking only His glory, we will into like what He likes, nor seek what He seeks, nor pray what He wants us to pray. pg 10
H. Preparing His Way pg. 11
Prayer is the rail for God's work. Prayer is to God's will as rails are to a train. The locomotive is full of power: it is capable of running a thousand miles a day. But if there are no rails, it cannot move forward a single inch. If it dares to move without them, it will soon sink into the earth.
Without any doubt, God is almighty and He works mightily, but He will not and cannot work if you and I do not labor together with Him in prayer, prepare the way for His will, and pray.
I. Applying Our Understanding.
1. If God Himself sends out laborers, then Christ would not have ordered us to pray to the Lord of harvest that He send forth laborers. Matt 9:38
2. If God's name will quite naturally be hallowed, if His kingdom is to come without any need for our cooperation, and if His will shall be done automatically on earth, the Lord Jesus would never have taught us to pray in such a manner as He did. pg 13
Matt 6:9
*Summarizing
1. God can only work in matters for which His children have shown sympathy. He refuses to work in areas where there are no prayers and where His people's will is not united with His will.
Prayer with joined wills is real power.
2. The highest motive of prayer is not in having it answered. It is to join man's will with God's so that He may be able to work.
LET US PRAY (Section 2)
II. PRAY ACCORDING TO GOD'S WILL
Scriptures: I John 5:14 "according to His will" ; Dan 10:1-21 "set thy heart to understand"
A. Point one pg 16 One who really prays is a person who not only often approaches God, but also whose will frequently enters into God's will.
1. Two kinds of prayer.
a. There is a kind of prayer which originates entirely from our need. Though at times the Lord hears such prayers, He nonetheless gets little or nothing out of them. Sometimes God will hear and respond to your prayers for the sake of satisfying your own needs, yet His own will is not fulfilled.
This prayer has its source in our own will. It is based on our own thinking and our own expectations.
b. There is a kind of prayer which comes out of God's own need. It is of God, and it is initiated by God. And such prayer is most valuable.
This can only be accomplished by often approaching God . . .
Our thought and will will be in fact a reproduction of His will and thought.
Suppose the Lord is grieved and mournful over the death of men. We too will develop such a burden of not willing to see even one soul perish. Or if the Lord is hurt because of the failure of His children, this very same burden will be reproduced in us; with the result that we will have the same yearning of not willing to see a child of God fall into sin and darkness.
pg 19
As we approach Him, God puts His will of spreading the gospel in us, this will soon become a burden within us. pg 20
(We cannot generate within ourselves a love for the lost, or a burden for anyone except perhaps only within the realm of our own family where we are hurting as a result of the situation. God desires us to have a burden for lost men and women, not just family and friends.)
2. Having entered into God's thought and thus having touched His will and purpose, Daniel found in his own heart the same desire as God's.
We do not need more words; what we need is a touching more of the Lord's mind.
3. This kind of prayer will require time to learn.
a. Our spirit should be calm and restful.
b. Do not seek for more words or thoughts in the beginning.
c. Bring your current situation before the Lord and consider it in the light of
His countenance, or forget your present condition and simply meditate on His word before Him.
d. In His presence, we perceive something and touch upon the will of God.
e. Our will enters into His will and our thought enter into His heart.
f. From here, our prayer will rise to Him.
B. Point Two When we pray with such prayer, our prayer will shake up hell and affect Satan.
*All prayers which come from God touch the powers of darkness.
1. Satan will rise up to hinder such prayer. Here involve spiritual warfare.
Perhaps our physical bodies, our families, or whatever pertains to us will be attacked by Satan.
2. Whenever there is such prayer, it calls forth Satanic assault.
The enemy attacks in order that our prayer might be discontinued. He may even throw up some blockage in the air so as to delay the answer to prayer. The answer seems to be suspended in the air. pg 21
* Summarizing
1. Nothing of the will of God is ever released without passing through man.
2. Nothing of whatever will of God is released through man is ever free from an encounter with the power of Satan.
3. For the realization of God's will, there is need of prayer; to remove Satan's opposition requires prayer. pg 22
LET US PRAY
II. PRAY ACCORDING TO GOD'S WILL
Scriptures: I John 5:14 "according to His will" ; Dan 10:1-21 "set thy heart to understand"
A. Point one pg 16 One who really prays is a person who not only often approaches God, but also whose will frequently enters into God's will.
1. Two kinds of prayer.
a. There is a kind of prayer which originates entirely from our need. Though at times the Lord hears such prayers, He nonetheless gets little or nothing out of them. Sometimes God will hear and respond to your prayers for the sake of satisfying your own needs, yet His own will is not fulfilled.
This prayer has its source in our own will. It is based on our own thinking and our own expectations.
b. There is a kind of prayer which comes out of God's own need. It is of God, and it is initiated by God. And such prayer is most valuable.
This can only be accomplished by often approaching God . . .
Our thought and will will be in fact a reproduction of His will and thought.
Suppose the Lord is grieved and mournful over the death of men. We too will develop such a burden of not willing to see even one soul perish. Or if the Lord is hurt because of the failure of His children, this very same burden will be reproduced in us; with the result that we will have the same yearning of not willing to see a child of God fall into sin and darkness.
pg 19
As we approach Him, God puts His will of spreading the gospel in us, this will soon become a burden within us. pg 20
(We cannot generate within ourselves a love for the lost, or a burden for anyone except perhaps only within the realm of our own family where we are hurting as a result of the situation. God desires us to have a burden for lost men and women, not just family and friends.)
2. Having entered into God's thought and thus having touched His will and purpose, Daniel found in his own heart the same desire as God's.
We do not need more words; what we need is a touching more of the Lord's mind.
3. This kind of prayer will require time to learn.
a. Our spirit should be calm and restful.
b. Do not seek for more words or thoughts in the beginning.
c. Bring your current situation before the Lord and consider it in the light of
His countenance, or forget your present condition and simply meditate on His word before Him.
d. In His presence, we perceive something and touch upon the will of God.
e. Our will enters into His will and our thought enter into His heart.
f. From here, our prayer will rise to Him.
B. Point Two When we pray with such prayer, our prayer will shake up hell and affect Satan.
*All prayers which come from God touch the powers of darkness.
1. Satan will rise up to hinder such prayer. Here involve spiritual warfare.
Perhaps our physical bodies, our families, or whatever pertains to us will be attacked by Satan.
2. Whenever there is such prayer, it calls forth Satanic assault.
The enemy attacks in order that our prayer might be discontinued. He may even throw up some blockage in the air so as to delay the answer to prayer. The answer seems to be suspended in the air. pg 21
* Summarizing
1. Nothing of the will of God is ever released without passing through man.
2. Nothing of whatever will of God is released through man is ever free from an encounter with the power of Satan.
3. For the realization of God's will, there is need of prayer; to remove Satan's opposition requires prayer. pg 2
