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I would like to begin this chapter with Hymns, #847. It will help us to read, sing, and pray over this hymn:
I long for fellowship in spirit,
That mingled with the saints I’ll be,
Long to be saved from independence
And to be built with saints in Thee.
I long for fellowship in spirit,
That opened shall my spirit be,
Long to be rescued from seclusion,
And with the saints to worship Thee.
I long for fellowship in spirit,
Long that my spirit forth may come,
Long to be saved from self-deception,
And every hindrance overcome.
I long for fellowship in spirit,
With saints in spirit thus to pray,
Long for deliv’rance from pretension,
Long for true fellowship today.
I long for fellowship in spirit,
Long thus to know authority;
Long for true fellowship in service,
Coordinated thus to be.
O Lord, fulfill our heart’s deep longing,
Saints for such fellowship inspire,
That we may realize Thy building
And soon fulfill Thy heart’s desire.
This hymn has six stanzas, and each stanza has a particular word. In the first stanza it would be good to highlight the word independence. The second stanza has the word seclusion, the third stanza has the word self-deception, and the fourth stanza has the word pretension. Independence, seclusion, self-deception, and pretension are four things we have to overcome. These are the elements of our spiritual cancer. Stanzas 5 and 6 are on the positive side. Stanza 5 mentions coordination, and stanza 6 has the word building. After the four negative things are cut off, we have the positive things — coordination and building. We need to sing Hymns, #847 with the release of the spirit. We should not sing in a dying way. We need to sing in a releasing way.
When we attend the meetings, we should always pray. We have pointed out that many of us have a bad habit of explaining in our prayer. We need to learn to drop this explaining from our prayer. We come to the Lord in prayer to ask, to beseech, to petition, and to beg Him, not to explain to Him. The Lord does not need us to explain things to Him. He knows everything. You may say, “Lord, You know that we are so poor.” But you do not need to say this, because the Lord already knows. It is better to change your prayer by saying, “Lord, have pity upon my poverty.” This is a real prayer. To say “Lord, You know that we are poor” is explanation. Turn your prayer, from the first word to the last word, into petition.
Furthermore, some of us are used to praying too fast. Because of this, others are not able to follow our prayer. We have to pray in an audible and clear way so that others are able to hear us clearly. Then they will be able to say Amen to our prayer. We need to learn to pray without description, without explanation, and slowly and clearly enough so that others can follow us.
Another important thing is that we should not pray according to our natural way. When we pray, we have to exercise our spirit with every word. This does not necessarily mean that if we shout, we are exercising our spirit. But whenever we pray, we must exercise our spirit and the Spirit should be released out of us.
Most of us have never been disciplined in spiritual things. This is the reason for the poverty of the church. In the entire United States it is hard to see an elder who really knows how to be an elder. This is because we have never found the time to have a training in specific things. We need such a specific training for the vital groups.
I hope that we would drop all our old habits and our old thoughts. We should remember two things. First, when we pray, we need to petition, to supplicate, not to explain. Second, when we pray, we should pray by and in our spirit. Paul says in Ephesians 6:18 that we should pray at every time in spirit. A number of translations translate spirit in this verse with a capital S. But the spirit here is not the Spirit, with a capital S, but our spirit. We need to pray at every time in spirit, and watch unto this kind of prayer in our spirit. If we pray without being in the spirit, we have to adjust ourselves. When we pray, we must pray from our spirit. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit (John 4:24). Whenever we come to the Lord, we must exercise our spirit.
We should learn to exercise our spirit to such an extent that even when we are quiet, our spirit is exercised. According to Romans 8, we do not know how to pray as is fitting, so we groan. In our groaning the Spirit groans also, interceding for us (vv. 23, 26). Our groaning in this way with the exercise of our spirit is the top prayer.
According to the Lord’s parable in Matthew 13:33, Christianity has been fully leavened. We have been contaminated by this leaven. The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew 13 that He came to sow the seed of the wheat, but then the enemy came in. First, the enemy came in to devour the seed sown beside the way. Then some of the seed fell on rocky places, which did not have the depth of earth. Other seed was sown among the thorns. The fourth category was the seed sown in the good earth to yield the proper fruit. The seed of the wheat eventually becomes the fine flour, but the fine flour became leavened.
In Matthew 13:33 the Lord said that the entire three measures of meal, of fine flour, became leavened. This means that Christendom has fully leavened in a hidden way all the teachings concerning Christ. The truths concerning such items as the name of Jesus, the gospel, salvation, regeneration, justification, and sanctification have become leavened. These items of the truth were not received by us in a pure way because they had become leavened. The Lord said in Matthew 13:33 that the woman took and hid the leaven in the three measures of meal until “the whole was leavened.” We must realize that in Christianity everything has been leavened. Even the way to pray has been leavened. In our prayer we have to be purified and purged.
We must learn to exercise our spirit in everything that we say and do. We must learn to exercise our spirit when we are shouting or when we are quiet. We must learn to exercise our spirit when we are praying by speaking or when we are praying by groaning. Our spirit should be exercised in everything. This takes practice. Even if people are going to play basketball properly, they need the continual practice.
After attending some of the group meetings we have established, I realize that all the saints need to be re-educated, to be purged. Now is the time for us to learn to drop the old way and the old things and to release our spirit. When we pray, we are not only praying to God. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14 tells us clearly that when we are praying to God, we are also praying for other people to understand (vv. 15-17). Not only God but also other people are listening to our prayer because they have to respond by saying Amen. Whenever we come to the meetings of the church, we should exercise our spirit to pray.
Furthermore, all the members of the vital groups should endeavor to attend the prayer meeting of the church. In the 1960s when we were in Elden hall in Los Angeles, at least seventy to eighty percent of those who attended the Lord’s Day morning meeting also attended the prayer meeting. Why could we have such a highly attended prayer meeting at that time but not today? Some of the mothers may take their children as an excuse, but I would encourage the mothers to get together for babysitting so they can attend the prayer meeting on a rotating basis. Of course, the mothers need to care for their children, but they should not take this as an excuse for always missing the prayer meeting.
We need to care for the Lord and His interests above our consideration for our family (Luke 14:26). Abraham is an example of this. The Lord asked him to come out of Chaldea and from his relatives into the good land. But Abraham came out of Chaldea with his father Terah and with his nephew Lot, and they stopped at Haran. Eventually, Terah died, and then Abraham came into the good land (Acts 7:2-4). When Abraham was asked by God to get out of that idolatrous country, he could not leave his father or his nephew.
Abraham’s nephew Lot also became a source of trouble to him. Lot eventually separated from Abraham and drifted into Sodom, where he became settled. He was captured, and Abraham had to fight to defeat the capturing ones in order to recover Lot (Gen. 14:14-16). Later, Sodom was destroyed by God.
Before His destruction of Sodom, God came to Abraham, in Genesis 18, in the form of a man. Abraham prepared water for Him to wash His feet, and He had a meal with Abraham, prepared by Sarah. He stayed with Abraham in such a way for the purpose of rescuing Lot. We can see from the life of Abraham that we need to take care of our relatives, including our parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, and children, in a proper way. Otherwise, we will suffer some dealing.
I am saying this to encourage all of us to attend the prayer meeting of the church. I would propose that four mothers come together for the purpose of babysitting so that they can attend the prayer meeting in a rotating way. Every month one sister among the four can take care of the babysitting for one Tuesday night. Then the three other sisters can be released to come to the prayer meeting. Even the church can consider doing something to help the mothers take care of this babysitting burden. We should not easily take an excuse for missing the prayer meeting. We have to be careful before God. To please God by attending the prayer meeting is the best thing. I hope that all of us would promise the Lord that we would attend the prayer meeting of the church.
Also, when we come to the prayer meeting, we must endeavor to pray. To come to the prayer meeting and not pray is meaningless. I would suggest that each of us pray at least three times in the prayer meeting. The Lord Jesus prayed three times in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:44), and Paul prayed three times (2 Cor. 12:8). Thus, we have to come to the prayer meeting, we have to pray, and we should pray three times. Whenever we pray, we must remember that we need to exercise our spirit for the release of the Holy Spirit.
Even the sisters who play the piano in the meetings need to exercise their spirit when they play the piano. Your playing of the piano may sound like the playing of someone who is either sick, sleepy, or dormant. You need to play the piano livingly by exercising your spirit. When you play the piano, your whole being, all your muscles and all your cells, have to coordinate to release your spirit.
The practice of Christianity kills the living functions of the members of the Body of Christ. In Christianity only one person is cultivated to speak. They think that this has more impact. But actually the functioning of all the members of the Body of Christ has the most impact. If we take this training for half a year, all of us will become living ones.
When we come together to meet, our whole being with our spirit should be living. Then if any visitors come to our meeting, they will be touched and inspired. A meeting full of the exercise of the spirit and the release of the spirit is the real church meeting. This is the meeting of the Body of Christ. When we come to a meeting, we should not sit there in a dead, dying, dormant, and sleepy way. Even when we are sitting in the meeting, our entire being should be living. We should be exercising our spirit and releasing our spirit all the time, even when we are not praying aloud.
We can say Amen in two ways: without the exercise of the spirit or with the exercise of the spirit. When we say Amen in the meetings, we should always say it with the exercise of the spirit and the release of the Spirit. Even the way we come to meet must be living. If we are not shouting, speaking, or praying, we should still exercise our spirit and release our spirit. If we look at someone with the exercise of our spirit, something living from us will penetrate that person. If we are living, we will inspire other people. If we are in the presence of a living person for even a short time, it will be hard for us to avoid being inspired by him. Therefore, we all have to learn how to exercise our spirit, how to stir up our spirit, and how to release our spirit. Even if we are merely sitting in a meeting, we should release our spirit. All of us have to rise up to function in a living way in order to annul the system of one man speaking and the rest listening. We have to come to exercise our spirit and to release our spirit.
The release of the Spirit leads us to the outpouring of the Spirit. We need to pray by exercising our spirit for the release of the Holy Spirit. If we do not exercise our spirit, the Holy Spirit is locked and imprisoned inside our being. He has no way out because we have cheated Him. We believed in the Lord Jesus, we received the Spirit, and the Spirit came into us. But when the Spirit entered into us, He entered into a prison. We imprison Him all the time. Now we have to exercise our spirit to release Him. When we exercise our spirit, that means we unlock the Holy Spirit. Today the key is not with the Holy Spirit. The key is with us. With the Holy Spirit there is no problem. We need to pray by exercising our spirit so that the Holy Spirit may be released.
This is related to the participation in the outpouring of the Spirit of power. The Holy Spirit first is the essential Spirit, the Spirit of life. Second, the Holy Spirit is the outpoured Spirit as the economical Spirit of power. We need to participate in the outpouring of the Spirit of power as the power from on high and as the dynamic impact. The power from on high is the real dynamic impact, and this comes from exercising our spirit so that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life, the essential Spirit, can be released. The release of the Holy Spirit will usher us into the participation in the outpouring of the Spirit of power. The outpouring of the Spirit of power as the power from on high and as the dynamic impact is for preaching the gospel and ministering Christ to others.
We have to see that the one divine Spirit is of two sides: the inner side and the outer side, the essential side and the economical side. The essential side refers to the indwelling Spirit as our spiritual essence, our spiritual life, and our spiritual person. The Triune God Himself as the Spirit is the very essence and base of our spiritual life. Based upon this, we can go on to participate in the outpouring of the Spirit of power, who is the economical Spirit for God’s economy. The Spirit within is for our essence; the Spirit without is for God’s economy. The Spirit without is with us based upon the fact that He is the essential Spirit of life within us. Since we are regenerated, we have the first aspect of the Spirit within us as a base. Based upon this, when we exercise our spirit, the essential Spirit will be released, and this will lead us to the enjoyment of the outpouring of the Spirit of power. This outpoured Spirit is the impact for our preaching and for our ministry.
Now that we have been regenerated, we need to realize that the Bible charges us to do one unique thing, that is, to pray. This is because to pray is to release the spirit. We may wonder what spirit we are releasing — the human spirit or the divine Spirit. My answer is this — when you release your human spirit, the divine Spirit is released, because these two spirits are no longer separate; they are one. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). The divine Spirit and the human spirit are now altogether mingled as one spirit.
Acts 1:14 reveals that the one hundred twenty continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer. This is not the private prayer, the individual prayer, but the corporate prayer. In our corporate prayer we need the one accord.
Acts 2:42 tells us that the early church continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. We should not think that prayer is the smallest item here since it is mentioned last. Actually, the last item is the conclusion, and the conclusion is the most important part. The prayer is more important than the teaching, than the fellowship, and than the breaking of bread. Without the prayer, we may have the teaching, the fellowship, and the breaking of bread, but we do not have a conclusion. In doing everything we need a conclusion. The prayer is the spiritual conclusion to our entire spiritual career. To our life, to our work, to everything within us, and to everything outside of us, the prayer is the conclusion. Thus, we have to continue steadfastly in this concluding prayer.
Acts 6:4 tells us that the apostles made the decision to continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word. Here prayer is mentioned first. In Acts 2:42 prayer is at the end. Therefore, the prayer is both the ending and the beginning. It is both the conclusion and the start. We have to continue steadfastly in prayer.
In Ephesians 6:18 the apostle Paul charges us to pray at every time in spirit and watch unto this in all perseverance and petition. While we are persevering in prayer, we have to petition. On the one hand, we are persevering, and on the other hand, we are petitioning.
Many things rise up in our environment to swallow up our prayer time. This is why we need to persevere. When we are praying, we should forget about answering the telephone or the knocking at our door. We are busy praying. We are taking care of the business with our King. In our prayer time we should have the attitude that we are with our King and we are fully occupied with Him. Because of this, we do not have the time to answer the phone or the door. This is an illustration of what it means to persevere in prayer and watch unto prayer.
We must always rejoice, unceasingly pray, give thanks in everything, and not quench the Spirit (1 Thes. 5:16-19). Paul puts these four things together. If you want to pray, you have to rejoice. If you want to pray, you have to give thanks in everything. And if you want to pray, you must not quench the Spirit. Rejoicing always, praying unceasingly, giving thanks in everything, and not quenching the Spirit go together. If you do not rejoice, you quench the Spirit. If you do not pray, you quench the Spirit. If you do not give thanks, you quench the Spirit. All the day long you have to say, “Praise the Lord!” All the day long you should give thanks in everything.
Suppose that you broke a cup in your kitchen. Would you say, “Thank You, Lord, for the breaking of this cup”? It may not be normal for us to give thanks in everything. But actually, not giving thanks is abnormal. We need to become normal Christians. To be silent in the meetings is abnormal, but to be exercised and living is normal. Christians have to shout, to rejoice, to sing, to praise, and to give thanks. This is normal.
Not many of us give thanks to the Lord when negative things happen. We have to learn to give thanks to the Lord in everything — in good things, in bad things, in positive things, in negative things, in gain and in loss. If someone heard you thanking the Lord when you break a cup, they might think that you are crazy. However, when someone says you are crazy, that means that he was inspired by you. He would never forget what he saw. The Bible charges us to give thanks in everything. To give thanks to the Lord in everything is actually very normal.
We need to participate in the outpouring of the economical Spirit of power as the power from on high and the dynamic impact for preaching the gospel and ministering Christ to others (Acts 2:17-18, 33; Luke 24:49).
Our participation in the outpouring of the economical Spirit of power is based upon the Triune God as the essential Spirit dwelling in us, operating in us, living in us, making His home in us, supplying us, and filling us. We have such a Triune God working within us to carry out His career. God the Father as the Spirit dwells and operates in us (John 4:24; 1 John 4:13; Phil. 2:13); God the Son as the life-giving Spirit lives and makes His home in us (1 Cor. 15:45b; Gal. 2:20a; Eph. 3:17a); and God the Spirit dwells in us, supplies us, and fills us (Acts 5:3-4; Rom. 8:11; Phil. 1:19b; Acts 13:52). We have such a wonderful fact as a base.
All the one hundred twenty were filled with the Holy Spirit for the Pentecostal preaching (2:4). This is the outward filling with the Holy Spirit as the economical Spirit for the preaching of the gospel with the dynamic impact.
Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, the economical Holy Spirit, for the preaching to the rulers and elders of Israel (4:8).
After beseeching, all the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit for speaking the word of God with boldness (v. 31).
Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit at the beginning of his Christian life to receive his sight and be baptized (9:17-18).
Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit to rebuke the devilish magician (13:9-11).
For all the above ministries in preaching the gospel and ministering Christ to others, we need the outward filling of the Spirit of power, the economical Spirit. Our participation in the outpouring of the economical Spirit of power is based upon the Triune God as the consummated Spirit dwelling in us, operating in us, living in us, making His home in us, supplying us, and filling us. But why do we not experience the outpouring of the Spirit? This is because we are short of prayer. Prayer is the bridge that bridges these two aspects together. We have the inward filling of the indwelling Spirit, but we do not have the outward power, because there is no connection, no bridge, between these two things. Prayer is our bridge.
Some Pentecostal people would say that you have to fast and pray for many days for something to happen to you. But this is against the teaching of the Bible. The Bible says that when we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Spirit came into us, Christ came into us, and God the Father came into us. All three of the Divine Trinity are now in us as our life, as our essence. They have become one with our person, our constitution, our being. The Bible unveils to us that the Triune God is now within us to be our essence, to be our element, and to be our constitution, mingling Himself with us to make us one with Him. Today we are divine persons. We are the mingling of humanity with divinity.
Since this is the case, why are we so silent, so useless, and so powerless? This is because we do not touch the outward aspect of the Spirit, the economical Spirit. In order to touch this outward aspect, there is the need of a connection, a bridge, and this bridge is our prayer. We should abandon the Pentecostal concept of having to pray for many days with fasting in order to receive the power from on high. We need to pray, not just for a period of many days but every day. We need to pray every day of the year. In other words, we need to pray unceasingly. We may wonder what we should pray for, but we do not need to make up our mind to pray for anything. To pray unceasingly is to have uninterrupted fellowship with God in our spirit. When we pray unceasingly, rejoice always, and give thanks in everything, this will make us “crazy.” When we are crazy, we have the power and the impact.
If we go to visit a candidate of the gospel in a religious way, we are through. To go in this way is to go as a corpse. But when we go to visit people in a crazy way, we have the power and the impact. On the one hand, we should be the most crazy people, but on the other hand, we should be very formal and proper. The real impact comes from our prayer. In the entire New Testament you cannot find a person who received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit without first receiving the essential Spirit within. If we exercise our spirit to pray, the outpouring will be ours, making us different persons.
If we do not pray, we will be abnormal. In the past we were very abnormal, because we were not living. We have the Spirit within us, Christ within us, and God the Father within us, but we are not living because we do not pray. Only one thing today can make us living, and that one thing is prayer. We must pray unceasingly.
Ephesians 4 shows us that the church is the Body of Christ and that the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father are within the Body and mingled with the Body. Thus, these four have become one: the Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. This oneness is the impact. This oneness is actually the power from on high. As the Body of Christ, we have the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father, and we are mingled with the Divine Trinity. Through our prayer we will be ready to go to reach people, because we will participate in the power from on high as the dynamic impact.
When we participate in the outpoured Spirit, our meetings will be dynamic, our prayer will be dynamic, our preaching will be dynamic, and our ministry will be dynamic. Everything we have will be dynamic because the Triune God mingling Himself with us is the dynamo. He is the dynamo — the “pum, pum, pum” — within us. But today we cannot hear the “pum, pum, pum.” Instead, when we come to the meeting, it seems that everyone is dying. This is according to the Lord’s epistle to the church in Sardis, in which He told them that they had a name that they were living, but actually they were dead (Rev. 3:1-2). They were not only dead but also dying. Their death had not yet been accomplished, so they were dying. We have to admit that our meetings were often dying. Even our visitation and our preaching were dying.
The key to make you living is for you to pray, and to pray mainly is to exercise your spirit. When you teach the Lord in your prayer, when you explain to Him, and when you describe a lot in your prayer, there is no impact, because that kind of prayer is not the unlocking of the Spirit. We should pray, “Lord, I want to be living. Give me the impact, Lord.” The Lord in Gethsemane prayed three times, and each time the prayer was short. We all have to pray in these days, “Lord, I want to be living.” While the sisters are in the kitchen cooking or washing the dishes, they should say, “Lord, I want to be living. I want to have the impact, Lord.” Do not pray for too many things and do not explain to the Lord, because He already knows. Just petition Him and tell Him what you want according to His desire. We also need to give thanks in everything. On a dark day, give thanks; on a shining day, a bright day, give thanks. If good things take place, give thanks; if bad things take place, give thanks. This is what it means to pray.
