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John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” This Bible verse can be divided into four points. The first point is, “you abide in Me.” The second is, “and My words abide in you.” Verses 4 and 5 speak of our abiding in the Lord and He in us. But in verse 7 I is changed to My words — “you abide in Me and My words abide in you.” I being changed to My words means that I have something to explain to you. This may be clarified by the following example: if I were to go to your home, first, my person would go there; then, after I had been there for a short while, I would speak and reveal the intention of my visit. Hence, when it says here, “My words abide in you,” this is a step forward. Third, it says, “Whatever you will.” Because of the Lord’s speaking in us, we begin to desire something, and this desire is something issuing out of the Lord’s words. Fourth, it says, “Ask...and it shall be done for you.” When we thus abide in the Lord, His words abide in us, and there is the desiring in us that comes out of His words; finally, “will” becomes “ask.” This asking is not an ordinary prayer. It is a specific prayer. Whenever asking is mentioned in the Bible, it invariably refers to a specific prayer. Hence, this asking will be answered by God.
This verse of the Bible mentions two things: on one hand, it says that we abide in the Lord, and on the other hand, it says that the Lord’s words abide in us. Consequently, the matter of prayer issues forth from the Lord’s words. All prevailing prayers, prayers that can be counted effective before the Lord, must surely be the result of our abiding in the Lord and allowing His words to abide in us.
First John 1:5-7 says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth; but 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.”
These few verses cover three things: fellowship, the light, and the blood. If we have fellowship with God, surely we will be in the light, for God is light. When there is fellowship, then there is light. When light comes, there is the need for the blood.
First John 2:27-28 says, “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. And now, little children, abide in Him, so that if He is manifested, we may have boldness and not be put to shame from Him at His coming.”
These two verses of the Bible also point out three things: one, “the anointing”; two, “as His anointing teaches you...abide in Him”; and three, “abide in Him.” The abiding in the Lord here is the same as that which is spoken of in John 15. The anointing is one thing, and abiding in the Lord according to the anointing is another thing. Finally, it re-emphasizes this abiding by saying, “Little children, abide in Him.”
In the past ten chapters we have spoken mostly concerning the meaning of prayer and the organs used in prayer, or the course of prayer. Now we will begin to touch something regarding prayer itself by finding out what is the nature of man’s real prayer before God.
Whatever task a person performs, he must be the kind of person constituted for that task. One who serves as a physician must be a person who is a qualified physician. One who serves as a teacher must be a person who is a teacher. One who serves as a mother must be a person who is a mother. Likewise, you also need to be a praying one so that you can function in prayer. Generally speaking, a man of prayer is one who abides in the Lord. Now we will see what abiding in the Lord means.
The experience of abiding in the Lord is based on the fact of being in the Lord. If you are not in the Lord, there is no way for you to abide in the Lord. This fact of our being in the Lord was accomplished long ago. The accomplishment may be divided into two stages. When the Lord redeemed us on the cross, He joined us to Himself, putting us into Him. This is the first stage. Then when we were regenerated, the Holy Spirit came into us and practically joined us to Christ, putting us into Him. This is the second stage.
Romans 6:3 says that we were baptized into Christ Jesus. By this we can see that to be baptized is to be put into Christ. The phrase believe in the Lord, according to the original Greek text, should be properly rendered as “believe into the Lord.” The into in believe into the Lord and the into in baptized into Christ are the same word. Romans 6 says “baptized into,” and John 3:16 says “believe into.” One is to be baptized into, and the other is to believe into. In baptism, you are baptized into Christ, and in believing, you believe into Christ. When we believe in the Lord, the Spirit puts us completely into Christ and causes us to have an organic union with Christ. Thereafter, in practicality, we become those who are in Christ. Hence, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Everyone who desires to abide in Christ needs to see the fact of being in Christ. If someone does not see this fact, it is useless to exhort him to abide in Christ. It will even be a hardship on him, for no matter how hard he tries to abide in Christ, he can never make it. But if he has the light and revelation that he is in Christ, he will see that to abide is an easy matter. He will realize that it is not necessary to seek abiding, because he is already in. This has already been accomplished by Christ.
Let us give a little illustration. Suppose you are a member of the Jones family. Since your birth you have been in the Jones family. As you were born into the Jones family, quite naturally you live with them. You must see that you are one who is in the Jones family. This is an accomplished fact based on your birth. You are, therefore, one of the Jones family, and all you need to do is to acknowledge this fact. Now what is required of you is that you remain there by living at home. In the same principle, if you desire to abide in the Lord, you must realize a fact. Something has happened to you, and you are now in Christ. Before you were saved, you were born in Adam. But after you were saved, God moved you out of the realm of Adam into the realm of Christ. The fact of being in Christ is now accomplished. In is a marvelous word.
The word abide means “to remain.” Abide in the Lord may also be translated as “remain in the Lord.” Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ makes His home in our hearts through faith. When you live in a house, that means you dwell there. When you go to a certain place and stay there for ten days, that means you remain there. The word abide in the phrase abide in the Lord does not mean to dwell or to reside, but it means to remain, to stay. As you are a saved one and you are already in the Lord, what is required of you now is that you do not leave but remain in Him.
To illustrate, suppose you were baptized yesterday, and you clearly sensed that you had been joined to the Lord and that you are in Him. Last night, however, a friend came and insisted on taking you to a movie. While you were about to go with him, you sensed that there was something wrong between you and the Lord. As you were considering what might be wrong, your friend continued to persuade you, and you decided to go with him. At that moment you felt that your fellowship with the Lord had been cut off. You felt that way because you did not remain in the Lord. You may be a saved one and thus in the Lord, but experientially you may not always remain in Him. In your experience it seems at times that you have walked out of the Lord, and your fellowship with the Lord has been broken.
Again, for example, you have just been saved, and now you have a clear sense that you are joined to the Lord. But today it so happened that something greatly provoked you. While you were about to lose your temper, you felt something was wrong inside. Nevertheless, you went ahead and lost your temper. And because you lost your temper, you knew within yourself that the fellowship with the Lord had been interrupted. It seemed as if you had walked out of the Lord. This means that you did not remain in Him.
To remain in the Lord is to abide in the Lord. When you thus remain in the Lord, you have continuous fellowship with Him. To be in the Lord is a matter of union. To abide in the Lord is a matter of fellowship. Fellowship is made possible by our being put into an organic union with the Lord. To have unceasing fellowship is to abide, and to abide is to maintain this unceasing fellowship.
The theme of the first Epistle of John is fellowship. The first chapter of that book tells us that we who have Christ as life have fellowship with God. The life that we have received in us causes us to have fellowship with Him. The Gospel of John speaks of life, and the first Epistle of John speaks of fellowship. The Gospel of John continuously shows how the Lord came and entered into men to be their life and to save them. First John continues to speak of the fellowship. As you have been saved and have Christ as life, this life will cause you to have fellowship with God. First John 1 speaks of fellowship, and chapter 2 speaks of abiding in the Lord. The abiding in the Lord that is spoken of in chapter 2 is the fellowship spoken of in chapter 1. What does it mean to abide in the Lord? It means to have an uninterrupted fellowship with the Lord, not to come out of the fellowship, and to extend the union with the Lord.
Abiding in the Lord is the way to maintain and continue in our experience of the fact of being in the Lord. As soon as we are saved, God puts us into Christ. But how can we continually maintain the fellowship with the Lord? First John points out two means: the blood and the anointing.
First John 1 directly and clearly shows that we need to maintain the fellowship through the blood. God is light. Once you have fellowship with God and touch Him, you cannot escape being in the light. Fellowship places you before God, and it also puts you in the light. Once you are in the light, you will inevitably see your sins. For example, at first glance the air surrounding us seems to be very clean. If, however, we observe that same air under intense sunlight, immediately we will notice that there are innumerable dirt particles floating in that air. Without the exposing of the light of the sun, we would not be able to see them. Likewise, if we lack the fellowship with God and are therefore not in the light, we can never be conscious of our own mistakes. But once we enter into fellowship with God and we are put in the light, we discover that we are full of impurities. There are impurities in our mind, in our emotion, in our will, in our intention, in our motive, and even in the consciousness of our spirit. Once we are in the light, our condition surely becomes manifest. And once it becomes manifest, our conscience will condemn us. If there is not the cleansing of the blood, offenses will definitely be present in our conscience. Once there are offenses in our conscience, the fellowship between God and us is interrupted, and we thus come out from the presence of the Lord.
Furthermore, in our daily living, there are still many actual sins that could offend our conscience. We have previously mentioned such things as going to the movies and losing our temper. Without any need of teaching from others, you, yourself know too well that these things are wrong. As one who is saved, who is in Christ, and who is in the light, you automatically have this feeling. Nevertheless, because of your weakness, you may have done such things. And because you did those things, there were offenses in your conscience, and you felt that you had come out of the presence of the Lord.
At that very moment you need to be cleansed by the blood of our Lord Jesus. If we are in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7). Under the light of such a fellowship, we see our sins and spontaneously confess them before the Lord. The blood of Jesus His Son will then cleanse us and remove the offenses from our conscience (v. 9). Then we sense that we are again in fellowship with the Lord. The blood is able to restore and recover our fellowship. This recovery is the maintenance.
In the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would bring the blood into the Holy Place and put it upon the incense altar. Then he would bring it into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it upon the expiation cover, which was to sprinkle it before God. Hebrews 9 tells us that the Lord Jesus also brought with Him the blood that He shed on the cross into the presence of God and sprinkled it before God. To this day, the blood of the Lord Jesus is still speaking well of us before God. It speaks on our behalf and is the ground of atonement. It is based on this blood that we confess our offenses before God. When we thus confess, the Spirit applies the effectiveness of the cleansing of the blood upon our conscience. Our conscience is purged of all its offenses so that there is no more barrier between God and us, and the fellowship is restored. Hence, our abiding in the Lord is first maintained by means of the blood.
The anointing of the ointment is the anointing spoken of in 1 John 2. In the New Testament age God comes to man as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not just the oil but the ointment. God comes to man to be the ointment moving within him. This moving is the anointing. First John 2:27 speaks not only of the Spirit being the ointment in us but, even more, of the ointment anointing in us. Hence, the anointing of the ointment does not speak of the ointment itself. Rather, it speaks of the anointing action of the ointment, which is the moving of the Holy Spirit in us. The continuous moving of the Spirit in us keeps us remaining in the fellowship of God and thus abiding in the Lord. Thus, the anointing also maintains the fact of our being in the Lord.
Therefore, the first means by which fellowship is maintained is the cleansing of the blood, and the second is the anointing of the ointment. This precisely corresponds to the types in the Old Testament. The types in the Old Testament show that when man desired to contact God and fellowship with God, he had to first sprinkle the blood and then apply the ointment. When speaking of maintaining the fellowship, the New Testament brings up the matters of sprinkling the blood and applying the ointment. The sprinkling of the blood is to cleanse away all that should not be there. The anointing of the ointment is to anoint us with the elements of God, even with God Himself. It is just like someone painting furniture. As a result of the painting action, the paint is applied to the furniture. The Spirit coming to man is God coming to man. And by the Spirit moving and anointing in man, God is wrought into man.
Therefore, on the negative side, the blood cleanses away all the things that we should not have. On the positive side, the ointment anoints us with what we should have. What we should not have are the sins, and what we should have is God Himself. By the continual cleansing and anointing of the blood and the ointment, we maintain our union with the Lord always.
The Lamb and the dove in John 1 are parallel to the blood and the ointment. The blood is the Lamb, and the ointment is the dove. The Lamb denotes the Lord shedding His blood for us on the cross to take away our sins. The dove denotes the Spirit coming to man to add the elements of God into man. Hence, we must learn to constantly receive the blood for the cleansing of our sins and to move according to the anointing of the ointment within. On one hand, as soon as we sense we are wrong, we should immediately confess our mistake and receive the cleansing of the blood. On the other hand, whenever the Spirit moves within us, we should immediately move according to the consciousness of that anointing. Thus, we abide and remain in the Lord. This should be our continuous and uninterrupted practice.
The Christian life is a life of abiding in the Lord. If you continuously abide in the Lord, your life will surely be holy, victorious, and spiritual. Every aspect of our Christian life is included in the life of abiding in the Lord. There are several points in this living that we need to learn properly:
To walk according to the Spirit is to walk according to the anointing of the ointment. We have said that God comes to us as the ointment within us, always anointing us and giving us consciousness. If we walk according to this consciousness, we are walking according to the Spirit. For example, while you are speaking, if your inner consciousness prohibits you from going on, you ought to stop. If your inner consciousness urges you to take some action, you should obey it and take that particular action. You may be about to express a certain attitude. If it seems that there is an inner feeling restraining you, then you should stop quickly and not express it. Whether in great things or small things, learn to follow the inner consciousness. To obey the inner consciousness is to walk according to the Spirit, and to walk according to the Spirit is to obey the anointing of the ointment. This is to abide in the Lord according to the anointing of the ointment.
Immediately following our salvation, we have the Spirit as the ointment anointing us and moving in us. Hence, we inevitably have a consciousness of the anointing. Our responsibility is to strictly take heed to that consciousness in the depths of our being. Do not think or reason with your mind. Once you think, consider, argue, or analyze, you will surely come out of your spirit and no longer remain in the abiding. Your thoughts, your reasoning, and your natural insight can often interrupt your fellowship with the Lord. Therefore, pay no attention to them, but take care of the consciousness in the depths of your being. The more you walk according to this consciousness, you will discover that you are more deeply abiding in the Lord. And simultaneously and spontaneously, your life will be one of abiding in the Lord.
Within we have the inherent sinful nature, and without we live in a society that is full of sinful defilements. Unconsciously, we are being contaminated by sin daily. Therefore, if we truly walk according to the Spirit and live continually in the Lord, we will surely have the consciousness of sin. Then we should confess our sins before the Lord and by His leading depart from them. Due to the sinful environment without and the sinful nature within us, it is a very difficult matter to live daily without being defiled by sin. Very often, unconsciously, sin will come to trouble our mind, damage our emotion, defile our spirit, and cause us to be sinful in our actions. Hence, it is only by the blood, as we confess our sins again and again, that we are able to abide in the Lord continuously.
It is very seldom that one who truly knows how to pray can do so without first confessing his sins. The more one walks according to the Spirit, the more he will discover that he has numerous sins within and without. The more he walks according to the Spirit, the more sensitive he will be toward the consciousness of sin. If he commits a slight mistake, he will sense it immediately and will deal with it. The more dealings he has, the more illuminated he is within and the more sensitive he becomes. The more dealings he has, the more he becomes transparent, at ease, fresh inside, and ultimately, the more he lives in the Lord. This is a life of abiding in the Lord.
Morally speaking, some things may not be considered sinful, but if doing one of those things causes a barrier to exist between you and the Lord, that thing needs to be dealt with. The life of abiding in the Lord not only disallows sins; it also disallows barriers. For example, you may have a short talk with a brother. The words may be proper, and the thing that you talk about may not be sinful. But if after the conversation there is a barrier between you and the Lord, then that is still a sin. Because you spoke something contrary to the inner consciousness, it was a sin of disobedience. God told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice, / And to heed, than the fat of rams. / For rebellion is like the sin of divination, / And insubordination is like idolatry and teraphim” (1 Sam. 15:22-23). When one disobeys God, this disobedience becomes a sin that creates a barrier between him and the Lord.
Hence, a life of abiding in the Lord requires us not only to walk continuously according to the Spirit, deal with sins, and depart from sins but also to always have no barrier between us and the Lord. Regardless of how good a certain matter is, if by doing it a barrier is created between me and the Lord, then I should not do it. Do not go by the moral standard, but take the Lord Himself as the standard. Sometimes you may give some money to others or help someone. These things are really good in themselves, but sometimes the Lord forbids us to do them. If you would do them in spite of His prohibition, even the giving of money or helping someone will interrupt your fellowship with the Lord and create a barrier. Refrain from doing anything that would cause you to be separated from the Lord. In order to maintain a life of abiding in the Lord, not only sins need to be dealt with but any barriers also need to be removed.
Once man abides in the Lord, spontaneously he touches God’s feeling and understands God’s desire. In the Old Testament Abraham was an example of this. Because he continually remained before God, God could not refrain from telling Abraham of His intention. Psalm 32:8 says that God guides us with His eyes. This is like the Chinese saying that one acts by the wink or hint given with the eyes. If you live in the fellowship, you will understand what the Bible means when it says that God guides us with His eyes. We need not be as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, so that God has to bridle us with headstall, bit, and reins in order that we may understand His desire. We need only to live in the fellowship, remain in His presence, and draw near to Him. Then spontaneously, we will be able to understand His temperament, His disposition, and the principles of His doings. It is as if in our spirit we catch a glimpse of the Lord’s eyes and thus spontaneously touch His feeling and understand His desire.
After we have touched God’s feeling and understood His intention, spontaneously we will have His desire in us. At that moment His desire becomes our desire, and what He wants is exactly what we want.
After we have touched God’s feeling, understood His intention, and are also able to desire what He desires, then we pray. This is the very thing that is spoken of in John 15:7: “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” This wish does not come out of the one who prays. Rather, it comes out from that which God has anointed into him. Since this desire is God’s desire, when he prays, God answers.
Some, shortly after they have been saved, read this verse in John 15 and then say, “This promise of the Lord is truly wonderful. I can ask whatever I will, and it will be done for me.” So they begin to ask according to whatever they want. Eventually, they find that what they ask for is not granted. This is not because the Lord’s promise fails to materialize. It is because they take the Lord’s promise out of context. They pray without first fulfilling the necessary requirements. They misunderstand the meaning of the verse. John 15:7 covers a total of four points. First, “you abide in Me.” Second, “My words abide in you.” Third, since My words speak forth My intention, it becomes the desire in you so that whatever you desire is what I desire. Fourth, as a result, such prayer will surely be answered by God. Now we understand that the desire in our prayer does not originate from man, but it is what God desires. First, man continuously abides in the Lord. Then God becomes the words in man so that man is able to understand God’s intention. This produces in man a desire that is God’s desire. When man prays according to this desire, God has no choice but to answer it. This then is to “ask and you shall receive.” This prayer is a prayer resulting from abiding in the Lord.
