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We may begin the table meeting with a hymn, follow the hymn with some prayers, and then sing another hymn. By this point in the meeting, the spirit should be relatively high and strong. When our praise has reached a climax, we should bless the bread and the cup. While the bread and the cup are being passed, if the spirit of the meeting remains very strong with the sense of the Lord in glory, another hymn might give us a feeling of being “out of breath.” Hence, it is better to offer some steady prayers.
If the atmosphere of the entire meeting has reached a high point and we have been led to the subject of the meeting, with the bread and the cup having been passed, we should remain in a quiet spirit to be in steady fellowship with the Lord, meditating on Him and remembering Him. Selecting a hymn in such an atmosphere would disturb the meeting, causing it to lose its elegance. Therefore, it would be best for two or three brothers and sisters to stand up and pray. But the prayers should not be too excited because the meeting has already reached its peak. At this high point we need to remain steady and calm in an uplifted spirit and offer some words of praise so that the saints can sense the Lord’s glory and sweetness. This is appropriate.
While we are exercising to offer this kind of prayer, we must remember to link our prayers with the bread and the cup and bring everyone’s feeling toward the Lord’s table. Our prayers should not be separate from the Lord’s table; rather, they must be connected to the Lord’s table. For example, when the bread and the cup are being passed, we can pray, “O Lord, as we take the bread and the cup, and as our hands touch the bread and the cup, we sense that You are the Lord of glory.” In this way we are immediately connected to the feeling and subject of the meeting and thereby enable the saints to touch something. This kind of exercise involves a great deal of learning.
Moreover, we should pray with words of revelation and avoid preaching prayers. What is a preaching prayer? And what is a prayer with revelation? Suppose we talk with two people concerning hall one of the church in Taipei. We may tell them that the meeting hall on Ren Ai Road is made of wood and has many glass doors and windows that face different directions. This is giving a sermon. However, we may bring them to hall one and say, “Look at the doors, the windows, the courtyard, and the inside furnishings.” This is revelation, a seeing. One way is to give a sermon, and the other is to speak by revelation.
Suppose someone wants to find a wife for a brother. One day he visits the brother and says, “Brother, there is a Taiwanese sister; she is tall and has large eyes.” This is giving a sermon. Then one day the matchmaker brings the sister to the brother and says to him, “This is Sister So-and-so.” This is revelation.
Many times our prayers are doctrinal prayers, not prayers of revelation. This means that when we pray, we merely recite a message to others concerning the Lord, as if the Lord is not there. We do not give others the feeling that the Lord is right in front of us and that we are gazing at Him while speaking of His glory. There is a great difference here. We need to have the utterance of revelation when we pray. Let us consider some examples: “O Lord, we praise You that You became flesh”; this is a doctrinal prayer. “Lord, thank You that today You are in glory, yet You still possess human nature. We praise You”; this is still a doctrinal prayer. “O Lord, although we are touching the bread, we sense You in glory. Lord, we praise You”; this is a prayer with revelation. Although these prayers refer to the same thing, they are expressed in two different ways. Whereas one is doctrinal and formal, the other is living and with revelation. Therefore, we must exercise to speak words of revelation. This is a great matter and should not be taken lightly.
There is no record of doctrinal prayers in the entire Bible. In Genesis 18 Abraham did not pray, “O God, You are righteous”; rather, he prayed, “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justly?” (v. 25b). This is a prayer of revelation. Many brothers and sisters use doctrinal expressions and utterances in their prayers. Most doctrinal prayers lack poetic qualities, and many prayers of revelation are full of poetic characteristics. For example, the prayer, “Although You are in glory, what we see is the honor You received in glory,” is somewhat poetic. It would be very good if all our prayers could bring us into the prayer for the bread and the cup of the Lord and if they also contained some poetic words of revelation.
If we stand on our relationship with the Lord and pray according to this relationship, it is easy to pray with revelation. For example, we may pray, “Lord, You are in glory, but we are still here. O Lord, our eyes are still looking to the future. When You come back, we shall be with You in glory.” With these few sentences we can touch something; it is as if glory has entered the meeting. It is not that glory has been transferred to us from eternity future; rather, the eternal glory is now intimately related to us. If we are afraid that the feeling of the saints is not strong enough or that our words are not clear enough, we may add a few sentences, “Lord, it seems that today only You are in glory and that we are not. But even now we know that the day will come when we shall be as You are; we shall be exactly like You.” We need to give the brothers and sisters a feeling that the glory we enjoy today is not objective but subjective.
Our prayer should let the saints touch the Lord’s glory. We may pray, “Lord, You formerly walked on the earth, but now You are in glory, and You still possess human nature. Lord, because You still possess human nature, we can break the bread and drink the cup to enter into fellowship with You even though You are in glory. In such a fellowship, we remember You and we receive You. Lord, we worship You. If You were in glory but did not possess human nature, we would not be able to sense how dear and near You are to us. Lord, we praise You that You are in glory, yet You still possess human nature.” Such a prayer brings our feeling into glory; moreover, this glory is seemingly objective but is actually subjective.
Therefore, we must come before the Lord to exercise to have utterance with revelation. We must touch the feeling of the spirit and have the utterance to express this feeling with revelation. With many of us, utterance in our prayer is a big problem. When we pray, it is difficult for us to touch the subject of the meeting or sense that the spirit of the meeting has advanced. The spirit of the meeting may be very high, but sometimes our prayers turn aside and do not touch the focus; if this is the case, it is difficult for us to maintain, to support, the spirit of the meeting.
Please remember that it is best for any prayers offered after a hymn to follow the feeling conveyed in the hymn. For example, Hymns, #136, “In Thy face once marred and smitten, / All His glory now we read. / Gazing on it we adore Thee, / Blessed, precious, holy Lord.” When we reach a high point in the spirit in our singing, we need a prayer to sustain the spirit of the meeting. This means that the lines, “Gazing on it we adore Thee, / Blessed, precious, holy Lord;... / Rise our hearts,” have brought us to the high point. Then instead of praying doctrinally, we should focus on the last two verses and pray, “Yes, Lord, as we are gazing on Your face, our hearts rise up to praise You.” Immediately this prayer is linked to the hymn. Then more prayers should continue to focus on the Lord’s glory. The atmosphere of the meeting will then be such that everyone sees the Lord’s glory in its utmost purity. Hence, the author of the hymn does not need to say anything except, “Gazing on it we adore Thee, / Blessed, precious, holy Lord.” If we can continue praising, the spirit of the meeting will be sustained. After numerous prayers of praise our hearts will be fully turned to the Lord.
Then a brother may be inspired to add a short hymn and select the last stanza of Hymns, #182, which reads, “Praise Him! praise Him! praise the Savior! / Saints, aloud your voices raise, / Praise Him! praise Him! till in glory / Perfected we’ll sing His praise.” This is even better. After the short hymn everyone may still have a lingering taste for the meeting; thus, we can send off the saints singing this praise once again.
If, however, there is still time after singing Hymns, #136 and offering prayers, we can sing hymns to fill the gap. Hymns, #141 is very good. It says, “Jesus, Thy head, once crown’d with thorns, / Is crown’d with glory now; / Heaven’s royal diadem adorns / The mighty Victor’s brow. / Thou glorious light of courts above, / Joy of the saints below, / To us still manifest Thy love, / That we its depths may know.” It is very good to sing this hymn at the end of the meeting because it is very subjective. Stanzas 4 and 5 say, “Who suffer with Thee, Lord, today, / Shall also with Thee reign:... / To us Thy cross is life and health; / ’Twas shame and death to Thee; / Our present glory.” On the one hand, it speaks of the Lord’s glory, and on the other hand, it says that even though we have seen the Lord in glory, we are still on earth; we still need to follow the Lord in taking the way of the cross.
We not only enjoy glory but also suffer shame, because today we are still on earth, and we need to despise the favor of the world. We should enter the path of the cross: “To us Thy cross is life and health; / ’Twas shame and death to Thee; / Our present glory, joy and wealth, / Our everlasting stay.” In such a table meeting, we will have a feeling that we are already in heaven and that it is really wonderful. At this time there is need for prayer. Without a prayer the meeting cannot stand firm. We may pray, “Lord, we thank and praise You. We are full of joy before You; we have touched heaven and sense that we are really in heaven. O Lord, give us Your humility and authority that we may walk a little farther on the path of the cross.” The center of such a prayer is correct; we have not only seen the Lord’s glory, but this glory has become our strength to enable us to take the way of the cross on earth to go on with the Lord. But this prayer also contains very little revelation. Once a formal phrase such as “Lord, we thank and praise You” is used, the prayer is finished. Furthermore, this prayer contains too much asking. At this point the prayer should be an elucidation, an unveiling. The praying one may say, “Lord, now that we have seen Your glory, how can we not treasure the path of the cross?” This means, “Once we have touched this glory, we cannot but thank and praise You; we cannot but endure the shame of the cross.” It would be doctrinal to ask the Lord for something in this prayer. The more we ask, the farther away we are. But if the sense of glory is disclosed, revealed, the saints will sense it, and we will not pray to enter into glory because we have already arrived in glory. This is the secret.
We would point out this way, hoping that the brothers and sisters will learn this secret so that in all kinds of meetings they will exercise to utter prayers of revelation, not prayers of doctrine.
