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Scripture Reading: Heb. 9:14; 10:19-22; 1 John 1:7; 2:27; 1 Thes. 5:16-22; 1 Tim. 2:8; Eph. 6:18
For the exercise of our spirit we need the cleansing of the blood of Christ. First John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” To exercise our spirit is to have fellowship with the Lord and also with the saints in the presence of the Lord. In the Lord’s presence we are in the light. God is light (v. 5), the churches are the lampstands (Rev. 1:11-12, 20), and the saints are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). Because of this, we are often exposed in the church. Darkness veils, but light exposes. When we are away from the church, everything may seem fine because everything is hidden, covered, and veiled under darkness, but when we come back to the church, the church as the lampstand shines, and we are spontaneously exposed.
Whenever we contact God, the church, or the saints, we are enlightened. We can test this in our experience. The more we contact worldly persons, the more we may be in darkness. On the contrary, when we go to contact the brothers and sisters, we are enlightened even while we are on the way to see them. Even before we meet the saints, we already have the feeling that we are wrong concerning certain matters. Then as we come into the presence of the saints, we are under more enlightenment even before we begin to speak. When we are in fellowship either with the Lord directly or with the church or the saints, we are in the light. This light exposes us, and we are not able to hide from it. Therefore, we need the cleansing of the Lord’s blood.
The more we exercise our spirit, the more we enter into fellowship, are under the light, and sense how much we need the blood to cleanse us. In 1 John 1:7 the fellowship, the light, and the blood are related to one another. If we are in the fellowship, we are in the light, and under the light we need the blood to cleanse us. If we do not apply the cleansing blood, our conscience will be dirty and under condemnation. Then our evil conscience will bother us and break the fellowship, and we will not be able to exercise our spirit. Therefore, for the exercise of our spirit we need the cleansing of the blood.
Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” By the blood our conscience is purged not only from evil works but also from dead works. Verse 19 of chapter 10 says, “Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus,” and verse 22 continues, “Let us come forward to the Holy of Holies with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” The Holy of Holies today is our human spirit. Because we are sinful, in the old nature, and in the flesh, there is no other way to enter into our spirit and remain in the spirit than through the blood of Christ.
If we are careless with God and our fellowship with Him, we may not sense that we are sinful, but if we care for our fellowship with the Lord and desire to enter into the Holy of Holies, we will immediately sense a condemnation within. This is because regardless of how spiritual we may be, we still have the old nature, the self, the soul, and the flesh. If we mean business with the Lord to come into His presence, we will sense that we need the cleansing blood. Sometimes we may not sense a particular problem, but we may still have a general sense that we are dirty because we are in the old nature. Therefore, we need the blood to cleanse us. It is through the blood and by the blood that we can enter into the Holy of Holies, that is, into our spirit.
Certain Christian hymns say that the blood cleanses our heart. It is more accurate to say that according to Hebrews 9:14 the blood purifies our conscience. Whenever we have a feeling that we are sinful or wrong, our conscience is dirty and needs the blood to purify it. Christ shed His blood on the cross to meet all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. Then this blood was brought into heaven itself to be sprinkled before the face of God for our forgiveness and redemption (vv. 23-24). Our conscience within us corresponds to God in heaven. When God in heaven condemns, the conscience within us also condemns, and when God in heaven releases, our conscience also releases. Therefore, when the blood was sprinkled in the presence of God, our conscience was also sprinkled and released. For this reason we have a good conscience, and we have peace in our conscience.
If we do not know how to apply the blood, we will not be able to exercise our spirit. Whenever we come to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, it is vital that we apply the blood to cleanse our conscience. God is righteous, holy, and in glory, but we are sinful, evil, dirty, worldly, common, and short of His glory (Rom. 3:23). Therefore, we need the blood to bridge the gap between us and God so that we may come into His presence by exercising our spirit to contact Him. We must learn how to apply the blood. Through the blood of Christ we have freedom, peace, boldness, and victory. Without the application of the blood, Satan, the enemy, the subtle one, constantly accuses us of being wrong in certain matters and with certain persons. When we apply the blood, it gives us the victory over the accusations of the evil one, and we immediately have the peace within and the boldness to contact the Lord (Rev. 12:11).
In 1 John 1 there is the cleansing of the blood, and in chapter 2 there is the anointing. First John 2:27 says, “As for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.” The anointing is the Holy Spirit as the oil moving and working in us (Exo. 30:25). The living, divine anointing within us is the constant moving, working, inspiring, and enlightening of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. In order to exercise our spirit, we must not only apply the blood of Christ but also take care of this anointing. This means that we must go along with the inner moving and working of the Spirit.
For the sake of the exercise of our spirit, we need to learn the lesson of rejecting our natural mind and caring for the anointing. It is often more difficult to forget something than to remember it. If a brother offends us, for example, we may remember it for a long time. If we exercise our mind in this way, we will neglect the inner anointing. Instead, we need to forsake our natural mind and care only for the moving and working of the anointing Spirit in our spirit. We may further illustrate how to care for the anointing in the following way. In the afternoon we may be burdened when we remember that we need to minister the word in the evening meeting. Therefore, we may go to the Lord with the intention of praying for the meeting and the message. However, when we go to the Lord, deep within our spirit there may be a feeling, consciousness, or sense, through the moving of the Holy Spirit within us, that we should pray for something else. If at this time we continue to pray according to our memory, we will exercise only our mind in our prayer. This is wrong. Rather, we need to drop that burden, forget about the meeting and the message, and go along with the inner anointing to pray according to what we feel deep within. This is a prayer in the exercise of the spirit. We all must learn this lesson.
We must apply the blood and care for the anointing. First John is a book concerning the fellowship of the divine life. It tells us that in order to maintain the fellowship we need the cleansing of the blood on the negative side and the anointing on the positive side. Only these two — the cleansing and the anointing — can maintain us in the proper fellowship, a fellowship not only with the Lord but also with the church and with the saints. We need always to apply the blood and to care for the anointing.
First Thessalonians 5:16-22 says, “Always rejoice, unceasingly pray, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies, but prove all things. Hold fast to what is good; abstain from every kind of evil.” According to the sequence of all the items mentioned in this passage, the focus is on praying unceasingly. If we do not pray without ceasing, it is difficult to rejoice always. In order to be continually joyful, we need to pray unceasingly. To give thanks not only in certain things but in everything also requires that we pray. We need to pray by giving thanks to the Lord in everything and for everything. Likewise, in order to not quench the Spirit we need to pray. Many times the Spirit of prayer and intercession within us inspires us to pray, but we may be lazy and idle. If we do not pray, we will quench the Spirit. By praying we are able to avoid quenching the Spirit. Verse 20 tells us not to despise prophecies. Prophecies here are not predictions. Rather, to prophesy is to speak for God or speak forth God. If we pray without ceasing, we will respect the word spoken for God by any member. Similarly, to prove all things, to hold fast to what is good, and to abstain from every kind of evil also require that we pray. All the matters in these verses are focused on our unceasing prayer.
Verse 17 tells us to pray unceasingly, and 1 Timothy 2:8 tells us to pray in every place. To pray in every place is a matter of space, and to pray unceasingly is a matter of time. Regarding space, we need to pray in every place, and regarding time, we need to pray unceasingly. Ephesians 6:18 says, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” These three verses tell us to pray unceasingly, pray in every place, and pray in spirit. If we do not pray in the spirit, we will not be able to pray unceasingly and in every place. If we pray in the spirit and with the spirit, we will be able to pray wherever we are and at any time. While we are talking, eating, and driving, we will still be able to pray because our praying is in the spirit.
A certain “spiritual” teaching says that we should not take the initiative to pray, but rather that we must wait on the Lord until He inspires us to pray. It is right to say that we should never pray by ourselves; we must pray by the Lord in our spirit. However, it is not right to say that we must wait until the Lord initiates a prayer. Rather, we should pray unceasingly. There is no need to wait. The Lord has already taken the initiative, and now He is waiting for us to cooperate and coordinate with Him. Wherever we are and at any time, we should not wait. We must take the initiative to open ourselves to the Lord and coordinate with Him to pray.
When we come to the meetings, we should not wait to pray. Instead, we should be prepared to pray. None of the members of a basketball team wait to play after they are on the court. All the members take the initiative and begin to play. This is the way we should be in the meetings. To wait is to be overly spiritual. Do not wait. We should immediately open our spirit and mouth to utter something from within. The way to exercise our spirit is to learn not to wait but to open ourselves and pray unceasingly. We may take the initiative because the Lord is already waiting for us. The Psalms often tell us to wait on the Lord (25:5; 27:14; 40:1; 130:5-6). However, to wait on the Lord and to wait to pray are two different matters. There is no verse that tells us to wait to pray. We should pray in every place and at every time.
We may compare praying to driving a car. We do not drive a car by taking the steering wheel and waiting for the car to start. Rather, everything in the car is ready, so we simply need to start it. Our prayer is in the same principle. Everything is ready for us to begin to pray, so there is no excuse for not praying. This requires much practice, but because we do not adequately practice to pray in this way, it is difficult for us to open our mouth when we come into a meeting. The way to practice the priesthood is simply to pray at every time by exercising our spirit. We must always exercise our spirit and be ready to pray.
For the sake of our prayer, we must learn to always be open to others. It is easy to open to the Lord when we pray by ourselves, but it is not as easy to open ourselves to others. We may even pray with a small group, but we may not be able to pray in a meeting. To open ourselves to the Lord and to others requires exercise and practice. This is vital. In order to exercise our spirit we need to practice until our spirit is strong enough that we have no fear before anyone or in any situation. A brother in Shanghai once told me, “When I was in a small church in a village of my own countrymen, I was able to pray freely. However, when I came to Shanghai where there are many spiritual brothers, I was no longer able to pray.” Some of us today who once were in a smaller locality also may find it difficult to pray where there are many elderly and spiritual brothers. This is wrong. We need to practice and exercise so that regardless of the place, time, situation, or persons present we can always open ourselves to pray. If we do not do this, we will be very limited in the exercise of our spirit.
Our prayer meetings are sometimes not balanced. Some of the brothers find it easy to open themselves to pray, but many are not open. This can be compared to a basketball team in which only two members pass the ball to each other while the other three are inactive. The right way is that all the members play as a team. When we come together with one hundred people to pray, everyone must open his mouth. We all come to pray, not to sit silently. There is no excuse for not praying. However, some may be afraid to pray unless they have the assurance that there will be many loud Amens to their prayer. This is because of pride. We need to forget our pride. If we would all learn how to exercise our spirit, everyone would pray in the prayer meetings.
In certain places where we conducted a formal training, some of the saints were helped by signing an agreement that they would pray in the prayer meetings. To be regulated in this way was effective to help them to open themselves to pray. Instead of encouraging you to sign an agreement, however, I would beg you to realize that the church needs the priesthood, and the priestly service is mainly to burn the incense by praying (Luke 1:8-10). The priesthood is a praying ministry, and to pray requires the exercise of the spirit. Without the exercise of our spirit in prayer, we cannot practically be in the priesthood. Rather, we will not be able to function for the building up of the church.
A meeting in which there are no speakers yet everyone prays is more edifying and satisfying than a meeting in which a few speak and everyone else is silent. This is because a meeting in which everyone prays requires all the members to exercise their spirit. When we all exercise our spirit, the Holy Spirit has a free way to flow. Satan, the subtle one, knows that if we all exercise and release our spirit, he will be defeated. Because of this he strategically tries to choke the spirit of the saints. If Satan can choke our spirit, we are all finished, and he has succeeded. Therefore, we need to fight the battle. Whenever we come to a meeting, we must exercise and release our spirit and always be ready to pray.
We must look to the Lord that we will be helped, adjusted, and balanced. We must learn to apply the blood, go along with the inner anointing, and be bold to open ourselves and take the initiative to pray, regardless of the place, time, and persons present. There is no need to take care of a particular situation or have an object for our prayer. We simply should open our spirit to say something to the Lord according to the inner sense. Whatever we sense deep within is what we should utter.
As Christians we may prefer to come together to listen to a good speaker, talk, or study the Bible. If we announce that a great speaker will come to our meeting, the meeting place will be crowded, but if we say that the following meeting will be a time of prayer, only a few may come. We must fight against this trend. When we come together, we should not talk much. Rather, we should exercise our spirit to pray, each one in turn. If we practice this, we will see a positive result. This is the exercise we need today.
When our work first began in Los Angeles in December of 1962, I came together with two other brothers five or six days a week for three weeks to pray from 8:30 A.M. until noon. We did not talk much, and we did not have a particular object for our prayer. We simply knelt and prayed, each one in turn. After those three weeks of prayer, we had our first winter conference. In that conference we began to see the Lord’s answers to our prayers. I can testify that in the years since that time, we have seen many answers to those prayers. We must all learn to practice the exercise of our spirit by opening ourselves to pray in any situation and in any kind of meeting. Our spirit must be strong, living, and ready to open with others to pray.
