LET US PRAY - Lesson 3: Prayer and God's Work

When the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

This week two of our families were blessed with new babies. My memory of staring into the faces of those precious children, both less than 2-days old, crystallizes for me what Jesus must have been trying to show His disciples. What does God asked of us? Simply to love Him with total abandon just as a young child loves his/her parents. The younger the child, the more pure the love.  This is how we prepare ourselves to be of use to God in prayer.

Throughout scripture, God shows how He desires man to play a vital link in the fulfillment of His will through prayer. In numerous instances, He as delayed His sovereign will until his children have prayed. Why? Because He wants a relationship with us. God's working has a primal principle behind it, which is, that He wants man to pray, that He desires man to cooperate with Him through prayer. He wants us to love Him more than we love anything else. He wants us to be one with Him when it comes to His will. Jesus confirmed this in Matthew 22:36-38.

When the Lord wishes to do a thing He first puts His own thought in us through the Holy Spirit. Only after we have turned this thought into prayer will He perform it. Such is the procedure of divine working; God will not work out anything in any other way. He needs the cooperation of us men. He needs a will that is one with His will and is sympathetic to Him. If God does everything without involving us men, then there is absolutely no need for us to be here on earth, nor do we need to know what His will is. Yet every will of God must be done by us, since He calls for our will to be one with His own. (Watchman Nee - Let Us Pray)

There is no work more important than prayer. There is not a more powerful weapon against the enemy than prayer. Prayer connects us with God on the deepest level. Prayer units our will with God's will.

When do we pray? Pray when you feel the burden of prayer--this is praying according to God's will. When the Holy Spirit is urging you to pray, you should do so. Each time God puts a prayer thought into us, His Holy Spirit first moves us into having a burden to pray for that particular matter. As soon as we receive such feeling we should immediately give ourselves to prayer. When we are moved by the Holy Spirit our own spirit instantly senses a burden as though something were being laid upon our heart. After we pray it out we feel relieved as though having a heavy stone removed off us. If we don't pray it out we are not in harmony with God's heart--God's will. When we pray as soon as the burden comes upon us, prayer will not become a weight, it will instead be light and pleasant.

What a pity that so many people quench the Holy Spirit when they are burdened to pray. Oh, if ever we fall to such an extent of having no prayer burden, we will have sunk indeed into a most perilous situation, for we have already lost communion with God and He is no more able to use us in His work. For this reason, we must be extra careful in dealing with the feeling which the Holy Spirit gives to us. Whenever there is a prayer burden we should immediately inquire of the Lord, saying, "O God, what do you want me to pray for? What is it which you wish to accomplish that needs me to pray?" And once we pray it out, we will be entrusted by God with the next prayer. However, if our first burden is not yet discharged, we are unable to take up the second.

If many will rise up to do this work, God will do many things in our individual lives, in our class, in our church, in our city, in our world, because of their prayer.

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chronicles 16:9

Next week we will continue with Lesson 4: The Principle of Praying Thrice.