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In the previous two chapters we covered the relationship between the cross and prayer and the relationship between life supply and prayer. In this chapter we will continue by speaking about the relationship between life illumination and prayer. These three chapters are related on the basis of the service of the Old Testament priests burning the incense in the Holy Place. Keep in mind that in the Old Testament types, when the priests entered the Holy Place to burn the incense, they had to pass through the altar of burnt offering. After getting into the Holy Place, they first placed the bread of the Presence on its table. Second, they dressed the lamps, and finally, they burned the incense. Hence, passing through the altar, the table of the bread of the Presence, and the lampstand is absolutely related to the burning of the incense before God. Everyone who goes before God to burn the incense must pass through these three places in his experience. The cross and prayer speak of the relationship between the altar of burnt offering and the incense altar. Life supply and prayer speak of the relationship between the table of the bread of the Presence and the incense altar. Life illumination and prayer are concerned with the relationship between the lampstand and the incense altar.
The priests going to the golden altar to burn the incense had to pass through the altar of burnt offering. They also had to pass through the table of the bread of the Presence and the lampstand. This means that everyone who goes before God to pray must pass through the cross. They must also experience Christ as life to such an extent that they are able to bring with them the Christ they have enjoyed and set Him before God. They must also experience Christ as light to the extent that they become illuminated within.
We know through experience that the more one draws near to God, the more he is in the light and becomes illuminated within. This does not mean that after you pray to God, you will become illuminated within. Rather, it means that as you pass through the cross and enjoy Christ as life, this life becomes the illuminating light within you. Only such an illuminated one will have incense acceptable to God and can therefore go before Him to pray.
No one should go foolishly before God to pray when he is in a darkened, dim, murky, and gloomy state. If we go before God in such a state, we will have neither many words nor much burden to pray. One who is able to go before God to burn the incense is one who has passed through the altar, has enjoyed Christ and set Him as the bread before God, has lit the lamp, and is shining within.
Notice here that if the light of the lampstand were put out so that the entire Holy Place were dark, there would be no way for anyone to burn the incense at the golden altar. Being in darkness, one would not know where to begin. It is entirely by the light of the lampstand that one is able to move and act and know what to do at the incense altar. This is a very clear picture. Many times when we go before God to pray, we have not lit the lamp and are without light inside. Therefore, we can only pray foolishly, groping entirely in darkness. Strictly speaking, if we are in such a situation, we should not even start to pray. We should first turn within to deal with the matter of illumination. When you are illuminated and can see clearly, knowing what and how to pray, you can start praying.
To care for the matter of illumination, we must first be dealt with at the offering altar. This means that we are broken by the application of the cross. We now experience Christ as life and enjoy Him as the bread of the Presence. Then according to what we have experienced and enjoyed, we bring Christ as the food of life and set Him before God for God to appreciate. Then the light within us will surely be shining, for that life we have experienced is the light. Now when we go before God to pray even for a few minutes, we will feel that we are illuminated within — the lamp within is shining. The Christ whom we have experienced, whom we have brought and set before God for His appreciation, is also the light of life that shines in us. At such a point we can easily pray before God. We also are very clear for which things we should or should not pray. We can touch the incense altar and know what we should do there. We know how to burn the incense. All those who have had the experience can testify of this. Hence, life illumination is absolutely related to prayer. Without lighting the lamp, we cannot burn the incense.
The illumination that we are referring to is not the result of some kind of instruction in doctrine or teaching in truth. Rather, it is primarily produced by man’s subjective experience in life. While the light in the outer court is natural, the light in the Holy Place shines forth as a result of adding the beaten olive oil to the golden lampstand. On the one hand, it is the gold beaten and shaped into a lampstand. On the other hand, it is the oil produced from crushed olives. This is entirely a subjective experience of the inner life. Once you have the practical and subjective experience of the Lord, the life in you will have the function of illumination.
Some messages concerning the truth seem to issue in a kind of enlightenment, making known to men what is pleasing to God and what is not pleasing to God. However, these messages are unable to cause men to burn incense before God in a deeper way. Only the illumination resulting from one’s experience in life can enable him to go before God and burn the incense in a deeper way. Hence, real prayers are not the result of keeping the outward doctrines but of being enlightened by the light of life within. I may give eight or ten messages telling the brothers and sisters to fast and pray. I may speak very logically and with great persuasiveness. But I know that after my speaking, they will not be able to fast and pray, because their doing so would be merely due to the influence of the doctrine. What you must have is an experience before the Lord so that even though no one has ever taught you anything about the matter of fasting, you cannot help but fast and pray. Then it will be something of your experience in life. There is an inner light shining and compelling you to fast. It is not an outward doctrine but an inward realization that will not let you go. At that time your fasting and prayer are the issue of the life illumination. Take another example: I may preach the word in Matthew 5 that says, “Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and first go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (vv. 23-24). My message may be merely an outward doctrine and not the illumination of life. You must learn to live in the Lord and experience Him as life. Thus, there will be something in you that keeps enlightening you. If you continue to condemn your brother, there will be something in you condemning you. This is the light of life. Only this kind of light can enable you to have real prayers.
As another example, suppose you hear a brother speaking a word concerning how to pray. If you have the experience in life, you will be able to discern whether his exhortation is just an outward doctrine or from his inner experience. If it is an outward doctrine, you may become greatly stirred, but it will produce no result. But if it is his own experience, then his word will be able to open and touch your inner being. While you are listening, the light in you is mysteriously lit. You feel that there is something in you shining and pressing you so that when you go home you cannot help but pray.
I hope that the brothers and sisters will learn the deep lessons in these matters. Then when they stand up to give a word, that word will be able to touch the inner being of men. It will cause them to have a kind of life function issuing forth as an illumination so that under the illumination of life they will spontaneously pray.
Only those who experience the illumination of life are able to receive the burden and commission before God and bear the burden in prayer. Many times in their prayers they almost forget themselves. They remember very little concerning their own needs or problems — whether in the material aspect, the business aspect, or even the spiritual aspect. Such a person may have a certain weakness that he is unable to overcome, but he does not pay much attention to it. The more one cares for himself, praying and dealing with his own weaknesses, the more it proves that he may not be in the light or living in the experience of life. One who lives in the experience of life, and thus in the light, will pray largely outside himself. He is able to receive a definite burden that is not the result of some outward exhortation but the issue of the inner illumination of life.
It is a certainty that the most purified person is the one who can pray the most effectively. If you asked me, “Who are the most purified ones in the universe?” I would reply, “They are those who can pray the most effectively.” The degree of your competency in prayer before God is determined by the degree of your purity. The more competent you are in prayer, the more evident it is that you are living in the light of life.
The light of life working in us always starts on the negative side. It shines and fixes itself upon us, not merely enlightening us on the surface but, much more, penetrating deeply into us. It is as if the light is able to split open our inner parts. This light penetrating into our depths not only exposes every little error in our action and attitude but touches the very root of our being. It touches our motive, our intention, the depths of our spirit, and the very source of all that issues from us. It can reveal whether or not our spirit is calm and pliable. Although we may not be wrong, unclean, or sinful outwardly, we may still be neither calm nor pliable inwardly. Once the light of life shines on these things, they are immediately exposed.
Everyone who truly learns to pray before God must be enlightened, and he must deal with himself severely under such a light. It is in such a light of life that we are able to learn deep, fine, and valuable lessons before the Lord. Our experience tells us that this penetrating light will illuminate us to a point where we feel that there is no place in the universe for us to hide. Then, and only then, can we know what it means to have nothing to be proud of or to boast about. Only then do we appreciate the fact that our only place of refuge is His precious blood. Our intention, our motive, our purpose, the spirit within, the inner source, will all be made manifest by the light. When the light illuminates, there are a number of feelings and experiences that are simply indescribable with human words. Hence, brothers and sisters, prayer is not a matter of how many answers you have obtained or how much faith you have. Rather, it is a matter of how much you live in the illumination of life.
Many praise Brother Müller, who established orphanages and had 1,500,000 prayers answered in his lifetime. Many praise him as a man of faith. However, when I read Müller’s diaries, I was not as impressed by his faith as by the fact that he lived entirely in the illumination of God. My first impression was not that he had great faith but that here was a man who whenever he went before God was scrutinized by God. As God scrutinized and illuminated him, he uttered some prayers under the shining light. Spontaneously, it was very easy for him to have faith and equally easy for his prayers to be answered by God.
In prayer, therefore, faith is not the most important matter. The first thing to learn is to be worked on by the illumination of life. You must allow it to expose you to the extent that nothing in your being remains hidden. Even you yourself have no place in which to hide, for in the light you have discovered that your whole being is a problem. There is no way for you to burn the incense before God because your inner condition is not right. At this point you know that your only place of refuge is the blood that was shed on the cross. It is here that, in a practical way, you experience the preciousness of the blood. And then by your experience you really know the meaning of the words in 1 John 1. You know what it means when it says that God is light and what it means to have fellowship with God. You know what it means to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. This is the first aspect of the work of the life illumination in us.
Please remember that all those who are competent in prayer are those who prostrate themselves before God. This prostration is entirely due to the illumination. Before men you may be proud and unwilling to throw yourself to the ground, but you cannot help but prostrate yourself before God. Such prostrating is not merely being knocked down by God outwardly or being subdued by God’s environmental discipline, but it is the inner illumination that has prostrated you. Strictly speaking, God’s environmental discipline still cannot prostrate you. It is always the light’s illuminating that prostrates you. (Of course, some also need the help of the outward discipline.) Consequently, you discover that your only trust is in the blood, and thus you become one who is prostrated to the ground. Your entire being has no escape before God, and you can only hide yourself under the blood. Thus, you are able to pray.
When we live in the light of life, there are always two aspects to its work in us. On the negative side, it deals with us, scrutinizes, penetrates, exposes, purges, subdues, and ultimately, prostrates us. On the positive side, it causes us to have the burden, guidance, words, and utterance for prayer. Such burden, guidance, words, and utterance for prayer are the result of the shining of the light of life in us. This shining in us is the anointing of the ointment in us. Once you have the positive work of the illumination, learn to bring your whole being to a halt and pray before God according to that illumination. Do not care too much for the needs in the outward environment or for the items of prayer in your memory. Pray according to whatever the illumination shines on and anoints in you.
Brothers, only those who have learned the lessons of prayer can know what is meant by the wind blows where it wills. Only such ones know what is meant by being able to move freely. At this point you can somewhat understand how the big wheel in Ezekiel 1 completely follows the movements of the spirit. Wherever the spirit goes, the big wheel goes. You do not make a decision to pray for such and such a work, such and such a person, or such and such a church. Rather, you pray entirely according to the moving of the spirit within. The spirit within blows like the wind. All you need to do is follow its blowing.
Take the prayers of Daniel as examples, and you will see that the Holy Spirit worked in him positively as well as negatively. You can see that Daniel was a man who prostrated himself before God. In doing so, he represented both himself and the entire people of Israel. Having allowed the light of life to thus work in him, he began to utter positive prayers before God. He could cry out to God: “O our God...cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary...for the Lord’s sake...O Lord, listen and take action! Do not delay, for Your own sake...” (Dan. 9:17, 19). See how this kind of prayer touches great heights and depths! This is what we mean by the positive work of the light of life in us.
Brothers, I believe that many among us need to enter into this lesson of prayer. We may tell the new believers, “On Monday, pray for your relatives and friends; Tuesday, for the church; Wednesday, for the gospel; and Thursday, for the work abroad.” It may not be wrong to tell new believers to pray in this way as an initial exercise, but our experience tells us that these fixed prayers will gradually become dead prayers. The more you pray this way, the more you become dead, the emptier you are within, the less you touch reality, and the worse you feel within. Hence, we need to learn to be enlightened by life. Whenever we go before God to burn the incense, we must learn to have something to set upon the table of the bread of the Presence. We must also learn to light and dress the lamps at the lampstand. On the negative side, we need to prostrate ourselves under the illumination. On the positive side, we need to allow the light to anoint us with what God desires and what He wants to accomplish. Then these will become our burden and leading. This illumination and anointing will give us the words and the utterance to pray before God.
Read the prayer in Daniel 9, and you will have to admit that Daniel was a man who not only had the burden but also the utterance to pray. Consider what he prayed: “O our God...cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary...for the Lord’s sake.” His word, his expression, was full of such utterance that God could not help but be touched. That word was able to bind God and compel Him to act. That prayer was uttered not just because someone desired to pray before God. Rather, it was that such a man having been illuminated within, prostrated himself before God, and, at the same time, received the positive burden, guidance, words, and utterance from God. Then he prayed according to the inner shining. Hence, such prayer was valuable and weighty before God.
We all need to learn to stop the activity of our being, our self. We must not allow our decision, memory, outward needs, or clamorings to disturb the positive work of the light of life within us. We should only pray before God according to what we see and feel under the positive shining of the light in us.
As we touch the work of the life illumination on the positive side and pray accordingly, at a certain time we will surely become very restful within. Such rest cannot be explained by the mind. It is entirely something deep in the spirit. Many times, although we are disturbed and attacked in our mind and are miserable in our emotion, there is an unexplainable rest in the depth of our being. Rationally, the disturbance may be due to some environmental influence or Satan’s attack, but we need to believe only in the peace and rest in our depths. One thing is certain: if in accordance with the positive work of the life illumination in you, you speak forth all the burden, leading, words, and utterance that you have felt, then you will surely be full of rest within. Outwardly, you may be attacked and disturbed both mentally and emotionally. Learn to ignore it. Trust only in the inner peace, and thus rest yourself completely. Thus, experience will tell you that not only are you a restful man, but you are also one who is illuminated within. You are transparent, restful, and very shining. In addition, at this point you can discern the inner condition of whoever comes before you. This is a very wonderful thing because you are in the light. You can sense how much of him is shining and how much of him is not shining. This is man’s transparent condition resulting from the life illumination in prayer.
May such a picture in the tabernacle be clearly impressed upon us. As the fragrance ascends from the altar of incense, the light at the lampstand is always shining. These two perfectly match and blend with each other. Without exception, every time the fragrance goes up, the light is shining.
Brothers, if you learn the lessons of prayer to this extent, you will surely be shining within. When you pray, you will sense that there is the fragrance ascending, and you will feel very restful and at ease. At the same time you will also be in the light and will feel transparently clear. Hence, we need to learn to live in the light so that we can truly be men of prayer.
Concerning the matter of prayer, many of God’s children today pay too much attention to receiving answers from their prayers and hope too much to have a living faith. I hope that henceforth we would not esteem these things too highly. Do not care too much whether or not your prayer is answered. Neither pay too much heed to so-called faith. But diligently learn to be illuminated by life. Learn to be enlightened within and dealt with until you prostrate yourself under the shining of the light. Learn also to pray before God in accordance with the positive work of the enlightenment. Pray until you feel at ease and restful within. Then just be at peace. That is good enough. Practice this and you will see that your prayer is acceptable to God and that you are a peaceful, restful man as well as an illuminated one.
