Search
Scripture Reading: Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4; Rom. 8:26; Psa. 27:4, 8
Revelation 5:8 says, “When He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which bowls are the prayers of the saints.” The bowls are the prayers of the saints, and within the bowls is the incense. This means that something as the incense, so sweet to God, is in the prayers of the saints. The prayers of the saints are the container, and the incense is the content.
Revelation 8:3 and 4 say, “Another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and much incense was given to Him to offer with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints out of the hand of the Angel before God.”
Romans 8:26 says, “In like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Even though we know not for what we should pray, the Spirit intercedes within us and for us, many times with unutterable groanings.
Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / 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.” The house of Jehovah has two meanings. The church today is the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15), and our human spirit is also the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22).
Psalm 27:8 says, “My heart said for thee, Seek ye my face. Thy face, O Jehovah, will I seek” (Darby’s New Translation). I would also like to read this verse from the Berkeley Version: “In Thy behalf my heart proclaims, ‘Seek ye My face’; Thy face, Lord, I will seek.” This shows that the psalmist’s heart within him said something for the Lord. His heart said, “Seek ye My face.” Within his heart there was a cry and a proclamation that he had to seek the Lord’s face. Then his response was, “Thy face, Lord, I will seek.”
In this chapter we want to have more fellowship concerning enjoying Christ in an intimate way. There are always many ways to do a certain thing, but we want to know the best way. The best way to pray is to mingle our reading of the Word with our prayer. We should read the Word to enjoy the Lord. When we come to read the Word, our mind should not take the lead. As we are reading, we will spontaneously understand something. Then we can consider what we read. After our consideration, we can transfer what we understand and consider into prayer. We should pray by exercising our spirit.
We should not exercise our mind to compose a prayer. Instead, we must learn to pray with broken sentences and phrases. When we are speaking intimately to those who are close to us, we do not compose something in a formal way, yet many of us do not pray and talk to the Lord intimately. Instead, we compose something formal. This kills our spirit and helps us to exercise our mind. We must learn to pray in a very spontaneous way with terms and phrases but without any formal composition. We should learn to be spontaneous with the Lord. As we are praying, we are reading the Word, and as we are reading, we are praying. Our praying and reading are mingled together. This is the way to deal with the Word in order to enjoy Christ.
Christ is life and everything to us for our enjoyment. On the one hand, the Lord is the Word and is in the Word. On the other hand, the Lord is the Spirit and is in the Spirit. Also, the Word is the Spirit. John 1:1 reveals that Christ was the Word in the beginning. John 6:63 shows that the Word is the Spirit. Ephesians 6:17 shows that the Spirit is the Word. We have the Word in our hand and the Spirit in our spirit. These are the two means for us to contact and enjoy Christ. The Christian life is not a religious life but a life of enjoying Christ all the time.
Our Christian daily walk and all the virtues of the proper Christian life come out of the enjoyment of Christ. Ephesians 5 and 6 speak of wives submitting to their husbands, husbands loving their wives, children honoring their parents, fathers caring for their children, servants faithfully serving their masters, and masters treating their servants properly. Such a proper human living comes from the infilling of Christ (5:18), which is the enjoyment of Christ. Even the fighting of the spiritual warfare at the end of Ephesians comes out of the enjoyment of Christ.
First, we can enjoy Christ by dealing with the Word. If we are going to enjoy Christ, we must know how to deal with the Word. If we do not know how to deal with the Word in a proper way, in the way of life, we can never enjoy Christ adequately. We also have to learn how to pray. To pray is to drink of Christ as the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). It is also to inhale Christ, to breathe Christ (John 20:22; Lam. 3:55-56). We all have to learn how to deal with the Word and how to pray, to inhale Christ as the Spirit. In praying, we work together with Christ, giving Him the ground and the opportunity to work out something through us. Thus, we may say that there are two ways to enjoy Christ. One is to read the Word; the other is to pray. We need to mingle our reading of the Word with our prayer.
In order to learn how to enjoy Christ by praying, we must drop the old way of prayer. Also, we should not pray for business affairs or personal concerns. Instead, pray to praise Him, to adore Him, to thank Him, to behold His beauty, and to inhale Him. Many times we have to pray by groaning, saying, “O Lord, O Lord...” This is the best prayer. Real prayer is not out of us so that the Lord would do something for us. Real prayer is the Spirit, who is Christ Himself, working and moving within us so that we would open to Him to breathe Him out and breathe Him in (see Hymns, #255). We must offer Him the free way to go out and to come in to express something of Himself.
To pray is not to take care of many things. To pray is to spiritually breathe the spiritual air, which is the Lord Himself. Day by day, even several times throughout each day, we have to learn to breathe the Lord as the spiritual air. Even while we are driving our car or cooking in the kitchen, we can breathe by calling from deep within, “O Lord.” This is the best prayer.
Revelation shows us that the saints’ prayers are the bowls (5:8) and the censer (8:3-4) that contain Christ as the incense. In our prayer there must be Christ as the incense. We have to burn the incense daily by offering prayers with Christ ascending to God. Christ is in us, and we need to have prayer as the censer, the bowls, the container, for the indwelling Christ as the incense. If we do not pray, we have Christ within us, but we do not have Him as the incense ascending to God. Proper prayer is not for our practical needs. Proper prayer is for the expression of Christ. We pray to express Christ, that is, to give the indwelling Christ the opportunity to be the incense to ascend to God and be expressed in our prayer.
Matthew 6:31 through 33 says, “Do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For all these things the Gentiles are anxiously seeking. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” We can even say to the Lord, “Lord, there is no need for me to pray for so many things. Matthew 6:31 through 33 says that You already know what I need.” If we are not at peace concerning our personal needs, we can remind the Lord to feed us and care for us according to His Word. We should simply seek the Lord Himself, His kingdom, and His righteousness. All that we need, the Lord will not only give to us but also add to us. We should learn to pray and seek the Lord Himself to behold His beauty.
Then we can go on to learn to inquire of the Lord. This means that we must learn to ask the Lord what we have to pray. Do not pray according to what you think that you have to pray, but ask the Lord what He wants you to pray in your prayer. Sometimes you may have to ask, “Lord, may I now pray for a certain friend? May I now pray for the preaching of the gospel?”
A good illustration of this is seen in Genesis 18 when the Lord came with two angels to visit Abraham. The Bible tells us that Abraham was the friend of God (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23). The record in Genesis 18 shows that there was an intimate friendship between Abraham and the Lord. Abraham received the Lord as a friend, a guest, and he served the Lord (vv. 1-8). The Lord and Abraham had a mutual enjoyment. The Lord then asked Abraham, “Where is Sarah your wife?” (v. 9), and He told Abraham that his wife would have a son (v. 10). Abraham did not ask the Lord for a son in Genesis 18. Instead, he allowed the Lord to say something to him. We should not bring many things into our prayer to intrude into our fellowship with the Lord. We should behold the Lord and let Him enjoy us as we enjoy Him. We should let Him ask us something, as He asked Abraham, “Where is your wife?” Then we should let Him say something to us.
After the Lord’s fellowship with Abraham, the Lord and the two angels started to leave. Verse 16 says, “The men rose up from there and looked down upon Sodom. And Abraham walked with them to send them away.” Darby’s translation says, “Abraham went with them to conduct them.” This means that Abraham escorted them. This shows how Abraham treated the Lord as an intimate friend. It was as if he said, “Lord, are You leaving? I am sorry You are going, and I am not willing to leave You. Let me escort You for a certain distance.” Through Abraham’s escorting and conducting the Lord, the burden for intercession came out.
Verse 17 says, “Jehovah said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” Verse 17 came out of Abraham’s escorting and conducting in verse 16. If Abraham would have just said, “See You again, Lord,” and would not have escorted the Lord for a distance, the Lord would not have had further fellowship with him. The Lord could not hide what He was going to do from His intimate friend. He had to let him know what He was about to do.
Then the Lord told Abraham that He was going to judge Sodom. Actually, at this time the Lord had a real burden for Lot, and He needed someone to pray for Lot. The Lord always needs some intercession so that He can do something for others. Through his fellowship with the Lord, Abraham came to know the Lord’s intention. Because they were intimate friends, there was no need for them to mention Lot by name.
Verses 22 and 23 say, “The men [the two angels] turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before Jehovah. And Abraham came near and said, Will You indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Even though the two angels left, Abraham was not willing to leave the Lord. He remained standing before the Lord for more intimate fellowship. Abraham began to intercede by asking the Lord if He would destroy the righteous with the wicked. This meant that he was praying for Lot. This shows that the burden for intercession comes from our contact with the Lord. Then the Lord reveals His heart to us, we know His intention, and His intention becomes our burden, which returns to the Lord as our intercession.
The Lord’s desired intention in His heart was to save Lot from Sodom, but the Lord needed someone to pray for Lot. Without someone to pray for Lot, the Lord could not act. This is the principle of incarnation. In the new creation, in the work of the Lord’s grace in salvation, there is always the need of incarnation. This means that there is always the need of someone to cooperate with the Lord. Then the Lord has the ground to do something. Genesis 19:29 indicates that when the Lord destroyed Sodom, He saved Lot to answer Abraham’s prayer.
After Abraham’s thorough fellowship with the Lord, Genesis tells us, “Jehovah went away as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place” (18:33). By reading Genesis 18, we can see that Abraham spoke, but verse 33 says that as soon as the Lord had ended His speaking to Abraham, He went away. This shows us that the best prayer is not that we speak to the Lord but that the Lord speaks to us. We should let the Lord end His speaking to us. Then we can say Amen to His speaking. We should ask, “When we ended our prayer and said Amen, did we end our speaking, or did the Lord end His speaking?”
Strictly speaking, the proper prayer is the Lord speaking through the one who prays. This is why we must learn to pray to behold His beauty and to inhale Him in order to express Him. If we do not know what to pray, we can groan, saying, “O Lord, I do not know how to pray or what to pray. O Lord...” Then we will have the best prayer.
We need to practice the fellowship in this chapter. We first must learn to read and pray over the Word. We also need to pray to behold the Lord and breathe the Lord as our spiritual air. Perhaps in the morning we can take ten or fifteen minutes for reading and praying over the Word. After this we need another time, perhaps five minutes, simply to pray. We should open ourselves to the Lord, look to Him, and seek His face to behold Him, adore Him, worship Him, praise Him, and thank Him. If we have some feeling within which we do not know how to express, we can groan before Him. If we practice this kind of living and intimate prayer, we will be nourished, refreshed, and strengthened by the Lord not only in the morning but also throughout the day.
We need to learn to pray in this way all the time. First Thessalonians 5:17 charges us to pray unceasingly. It is only by this way of prayer that we can unceasingly pray. To pray in this way is to breathe spiritually. No matter what we are doing, we can pray in the way of spiritual breathing. We should breathe unceasingly, no matter what we are doing. Then we will enjoy Christ continuously.
