We need to change the subject of the Perfecting Training from the matter of peculiarity to the matter of habit. We need to see that we must build up a habit to live Christ. For some time now I have been bothered that it is so hard to have a habit to live Christ. All of you love the Lord. Your being here is a sign that you love Him. Because you love Him, you have been stirred up to seek how to live Him and to practice the one spirit with Him. According to my experience, the hardest thing is to get into the habit to live Christ and to practice the one spirit with Him.
Years ago I learned the fact that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), but I never realized that this should be an experience to us. It should not be just a doctrine remaining there in the Bible and in our apprehension. It should be an experience. But when I began to practice this matter, I discovered that it is hard. It is hard because seemingly there is nothing sinful and there is nothing wrong if you do not practice the one spirit with the Lord. You can still be a good person; you can still be a “proper” Christian. No one would condemn you, and even you would not condemn yourself. We are all unconscious of this matter. It is something beyond our thinking and beyond our memory. In the morning you may have prayed concerning practicing one spirit with the Lord. After that you went to breakfast, and right away that matter was in the air, not in your living. Not until the night came did you realize that you did not practice the one spirit with the Lord. Then you confessed your failure, and the next morning you prayed again concerning living Christ.
It is really hard to build up such a habit of living Christ. To build up a habit of living Christ in our experience is not only in the air but just like the air. It is altogether not solid. You do not need to intentionally forget it; you just forget it. It is easy to pick up the doctrine of living Christ. We started to use this term about two years ago. Before that time we used the terms live by Christ and live out Christ. We never used such a direct expression—to live Christ. Since that time we learned this term, and we put it into our doctrinal memory. Yet it is very little in our practice. Although you may have appreciated this term very much, yet you have never put it into practice. It is hard because it is an all-day-long matter. It is like breathing and living. Both breathing and living are continual. To live Christ is just living, and to practice the one spirit with the Lord is just breathing. These two matters should be lifelong and all the day long. Yet our experience is altogether different. Occasionally we live Christ in the morning. Then we die for twelve hours, or at least we sleep for twelve hours. Later we wake up for a while and live Christ for a short time. From my experience I have fully realized that this is the hardest thing to practice. Whenever I have a little time, I contact the Lord: “Lord, I surely would like to learn the secret that I may continually live You, that I could live You without interruption and without ceasing.” Nearly every day I have had this kind of prayer.
Today as I went to the Lord concerning this matter of the secret of living Him, I had the inner feeling that it has something to do with the matter of watching, of watchfulness. So let us read a very familiar verse, Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” In this verse the word weak means sleepy. The word watch has at least two meanings: the first meaning is “to look at, to observe, or to see”; the second meaning is “not to sleep, to stay awake.” M. R. Vincent, in his Word Studies in the New Testament, says that the word watch in Mark 13:35 is derived from a word composed of two parts. The first part means “to hunt or to seek.” The second part means “sleep.” Thus, it means “to hunt sleep.” Vincent says, “The picture is of one in pursuit of sleep, and therefore wakeful, restless.” It means that you are addicted to sleep. You are a sleeper. Because Peter was sleeping and pursuing his sleep, the Lord Jesus said, “Watch.” When the Lord Jesus went to pray, Peter and the others went to sleep. When the Lord Jesus told them to watch, He meant do not sleep. Wake up! According to the context, it means that their spirit was willing, but their flesh was sleepy and weak. So Vincent says that this matter of being watchful must be a habit. The Lord Jesus joined these two words, watch and pray, together.
Colossians, a book on Christ, the Head, and Ephesians, a book on the Body, both end with the same charge. Ephesians 6:18 says, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” Praying at every time means not only on every hour or every half hour but all the time. All prayer means all kinds of prayers—short prayers, long prayers, loud prayers, silent prayers, public prayers, private prayers, prayer by yourself, prayer by a number of saints. It does not mean that whenever you pray, you need to do these things; it means that at every time you need to pray; even every minute you have to pray. Pray at all times, pray at every time, in spirit watching unto this. Watching unto this refers to the prayer at all times. This means that you should be wakeful to such a prayer. You should not be sleeping. It even says, “Watching unto this in all perseverance.” This means not only one kind of perseverance but all kinds of perseverance. You have to persist; you have to insist to the uttermost. This indicates that there may be something holding you down, holding you back, suppressing, oppressing, depressing, and hindering you. So you have to persevere; you have to be persistent; you have to insist; you would not give up.
Thus, Paul also picked up the thought to combine pray and watch. The seed of praying and watching was sown in Matthew, and the development is here in Paul’s Epistle. All of us know that Ephesians is a book on the Body. But how can you have the Body life? It is not just to understand it, although we surely need to understand, because we are complicated people. The enjoyment of food comes from the taste of the food. If you do not have any knowledge of the taste of a certain food, you could never love that food. Once you have some knowledge concerning a certain food, you will have an emotional aspiration for that food. Then you need a strong will to get the food. Then you will eat. Likewise, to have the church life we need Ephesians to teach us. But after being taught, shall we simply keep the knowledge? No. After being taught with the knowledge concerning the Body of Christ, we need to pray. And we need to pray at every time, not only in the morning or at noontime or in the afternoon or before bedtime. We have to pray at every time.
According to the revelation of Ephesians, we have to pray in order to have the church life. Although you may have the knowledge concerning the church, without praying unceasingly you cannot have the church life. The church life does not remain with your knowledge; it remains with your praying, even with your continual and persistent prayer all the time. At the end of Ephesians such a charge is given, indicating that the church depends upon our prayer life. If we do not have a prayer life, we are through. We may have a lot of knowledge, a lot of revelation concerning the Body, but this does not mean we can have the church life. To have the church life depends upon our continual prayer. Ephesians 6:18, like other verses in these four books, uses many modifiers: “By means of all prayer...praying at every time in spirit...in...petition.” We have to pray and watch unto prayer in petition. This is the way to watch unto prayer. This means you have to pray every minute, and then you have to be awake, not sleeping. We have to be awake to this kind of continual prayer, and this watching is in all petition. This means that while you are praying, you are watchful; while you are praying, you are awake.
According to the Lord’s word in Matthew 26, we are all sleepy persons. If you do not sleep physically, you sleep spiritually. And many times you sleep psychologically. While I am speaking, some may be sleeping physically, and others are sleeping psychologically. This means that their mind and their attention and their hearing and their realization are absent. Sometimes you are sleeping spiritually. This means that your perception is dormant. To be a person who prays unceasingly, you must be a watchful person, a person fully awakened, fighting against your sleeping nature and your sleeping being. How do you fight? By petitioning. Prayer is a general thing; petition is a special, particular thing. You have to watch unto the general prayer by special petition.
In Matthew the Lord Jesus only said watch and pray, but Paul developed it very much. Paul’s speaking corresponds with the Lord’s. The Lord said, “The spirit is willing,” and Paul said, “Praying at every time in spirit.” Paul’s word indicates that we should forget about our flesh. We should not let our body sleep so much but should let our spirit pray much. But nearly all the day long we have been subdued and controlled either by our body or by our psychology. So we have to let our spirit rise up over our body and over our psychology. Then we can pray, and we can watch unto prayer in the way of all petition. Of course, this will tire you out, but you need to exercise. If you are going to get strength, you have to spend strength. If your automobile does not run for a certain period of time, the battery will be run down. While the car is running, it exhausts the battery, but it also charges the battery. How do you get more strength? Exercise. If you do not pray today, you cannot pray tomorrow. If you do not pray in the morning, you cannot pray at noontime or in the evening. One time of prayer strengthens you to pray two more times. Two times of prayer strengthens you to pray four times. The more you pray, the more you will have to pray. The more you pray, the more you will like to pray. And the more you pray, the more you will be able to pray. I am in good physical condition because I get a lot of exercise. If I miss two or three days of walking, I feel awkward when I begin to exercise again. I may start out walking only sixty minutes a day, but every day I add a minute, and soon I can walk one and a half hours. When I exercise every day, my walking is so refreshing to me. It does not give me an awkward feeling. Exercise increases your strength. If you do not pray, you just do not like to pray. If you pray, your appetite for prayer will be increased. So you have to pray and watch unto prayer in all petition. This means do not cease in prayer. Do not stop your prayer. Pray all the time and keep yourself all the time wakeful. You have to fight against the threefold sleep: physical, psychological, and spiritual. This word concerning prayer is the concluding charge in the book of Ephesians, a book that reveals the Body of Christ. Is this not meaningful? If you do not have such a kind of watchful prayer, it will be difficult to have the church life.
Colossians, a book on Christ, also has a concluding charge. Colossians 4:2 reads, “Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.” For the third time these two words watch and pray are put together in the Bible. Of course, they are also mentioned in Mark 13:33 and Luke 21:36. But the accounts in the Gospels should be counted nearly as one because they were spoken by the Lord. But Paul repeated it in these two books on Christ and the church. This means that if you are going to experience Christ, it is not altogether adequate just to have the revelation in Colossians. It is not adequate merely to have the extensive and all-inclusive revelation of Christ. After receiving such a revelation of Christ, you have to pray and you have to persevere in prayer. Do not let yourself be subdued by anything. Do not be oppressed, suppressed, or depressed by anything. Do not be distracted or held back or hindered by anything. You have to be persevering. So Paul says to persevere in prayer.
First Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Unceasingly pray.” Now you understand how to pray without ceasing—just be watchful. To be watchful helps you to build up a habit of prayer. The ultimate and consummate conclusion of all the charges in the Bible is that we need to live Christ and walk in the spirit. It is not to love this or love that, nor is it to do this or to do that. The final word is to live Christ and to walk in spirit. We need to do this by the way of watching unto prayer in all petition. There is no other way that we can live Christ continually, and there is no other way that we can walk in spirit. Actually, here the word walk equals the word live. To walk in spirit actually means to live in spirit. So to live Christ is a matter of living in spirit. This can never be possible unless we have a prayer life with a continual watching in all petition.
We need the Lord’s mercy. If we do not pray and we do not watch unto prayer in all petition, even the Lord can do nothing. When a person is sick or dying, the first step to recovery is the regaining of his appetite. The more the sick person eats, the more life supply he gets. Then the more life he will have, which will produce more appetite. Gradually the appetite will be altogether restored. You may consider that you are weak and that you cannot pray unceasingly; it is too hard. You have to realize, though, that you are not yet dead. At the most you may be sleeping or dormant or sick. You still have life. You still are living. So do not reject the eating. If you reject the eating today, tomorrow you may die. As long as you have a little appetite, take in a little bit of food. This will help you. Do not despise that little amount of food. Do not be so dormant and so restful. You have to shout a little bit; you have to cry, “Lord Jesus! I like to pray! Make me watch!” I have experienced this very much not only in my spiritual life but also in my physical life.
In 1943 I became sick with tuberculosis of the lungs. Because it was so serious, I was confined to bed for close to a year and a half. Just to walk from my bed to a chair caused my temperature to rise. But gradually I could walk from the bed to the chair without affecting the temperature. Slowly and gradually I increased my distance of walking until after six months I could walk out the door and into the yard to lie down under the sunshine. Day by day I added a little more time to my exercise until I was fully recovered. By 1946 I was fully recovered, and today I am very strong because of that practice and exercise. During that time I learned to be patient and not to be disappointed. In my physical practice I was a success, and I do believe that in my spiritual practice sooner or later I will make it. I believe also that you will make it too. So let us practice praying without ceasing. There is no shortcut. You must pay the price, and by His mercy you must pick up the patience. You may be defeated for a long period of time, but do not be disappointed. Continue to practice. One day the help will come.
Let me repeat: to live Christ, to practice the one spirit with the Lord, is by the continual and unceasing prayer. To have such a prayer life, we all must learn to watch. We also must be on the alert to be awake. We have to watch unto this kind of prayer. When you discover that there is something within you reluctant to pray, you have to fight against it. When something within you tells you not to pray, you had better pray twice as much. Although you may say you have nothing to pray, Paul tells us we have many things to pray. He said to pray at every time in spirit and watch in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints. Do not say you have nothing to pray about. The church in Anaheim has over three hundred members. Pray for every one of these. Once you finish praying for all these saints, you can pray for the other churches in Orange County and then the other churches throughout the country. You can never finish your job of prayer.
We must remember Ephesians 6:18: “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” We have to admit that there is much possibility for us to have this kind of prayer life because we have so much in the environment and in our own life to pray for. I have the assurance that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery do have an appetite, an aspiration, to pray. In the Lord’s recovery the saints are praying people. Perhaps when you were somewhere else in the past, you did not have that much aspiration for prayer, but after you came into the Lord’s recovery, you began to aspire to pray. Although you may not have been successful to such an extent, still you had the desire and the hunger and the thirst to pray. Now please practice the hunger. The more you pray, the more you will be thirsty to pray. I can assure you, it is not too hard. The habit of living Christ must be the habit of prayer, and the habit of prayer is not so hard to build up. Practice this yourself, and eventually you will be a good coach to help so many into this kind of praying life. I have the assurance that after a few years many saints in the Lord’s recovery will be coached into this kind of prayerful life to live Christ and to practice the one spirit with the Lord.
