CHAPTER ONE
THE MEANING OF PRAYER
Scripture Reading: Psa. 27:1, 4, 8; 42:1-2, 5, 11
In this chapter we will fellowship concerning the kind of prayer that seeks God and is according to the anointing.
NATURAL CONCEPTS DIFFERING FROM THE DIVINE REVELATION
Our natural views concerning spiritual matters differ from God’s views. For example, God’s view of faith is different from our concept of faith. We have natural concepts concerning every spiritual matter. Because we are narrow and even in darkness, our concepts are often far removed from the divine revelation. Hence, we need the divine revelation in every spiritual matter so that we may see God’s view.
When we receive revelation from God in a spiritual matter, we discover how ignorant and contrary our views are. Our natural views have caused us to suffer much loss, hindered us from receiving God’s grace, and wasted God’s time. The sorrow and grief that result from our natural concepts are greater than the sorrow and grief of committing a great sin. Our concepts are our biggest problem before God. It is not too difficult for God to deliver us from sin, but it is not easy for Him to deliver us from our concepts, especially from our concepts concerning spiritual things.
Our person is hidden in our concepts. When the Lord told His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and be raised on the third day, Peter rebuked Him, saying, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (Matt. 16:21-22). Then the Lord turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men” (v. 23). Jesus then said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (v. 24). This portion of the Word shows that human opinions are often the manifestation of the self. Our experience also confirms that our self often hides in our opinions. Our self is often hidden in our opinions and expressed through our opinions. Likewise, in spiritual matters our concepts are often full of the self.
This is a common problem with prayer. There are children of God who have been saved for many years but have not been delivered from the self. They still have their own concepts, are full of natural views, and lack spiritual revelation regarding prayer. They do not know the meaning of prayer.
Some believers think that prayer is simply to talk to God or to cry out to Him. This meaning is not bad, but prayer is not merely talking to God or crying out to Him. If God would open our eyes to see His view of prayer, we would realize that we do not understand prayer. Some believers have prayed for more than ten years before discovering, by revelation, that they did not know the meaning of prayer, nor did they know how to pray. Their thought concerning prayer differed from what is revealed in God’s Word.
THE MEANING OF PRAYER
Therefore, I have a heavy burden to speak to the saints concerning the meaning of prayer.
To Absorb God
First, prayer is to absorb God; prayer causes man to obtain God. God is reality; hence, He is contactable and obtainable. The God whom we worship is not doctrine, theory, philosophy, or ideology, nor is He an empty character or a vain idol. The God whom we worship is Spirit; He is a real spiritual entity. He is as real as air, water, and sound. Just as air, water, and sound are in the universe, so also God, who is Spirit, is in the universe. We can worship Him, and we can also contact, absorb, and obtain Him.
We can obtain God through prayer. In order to obtain water, we must drink; in order to obtain air, we must breathe; and in order to obtain sound, we must listen. If we want to obtain God, we must pray. Hence, the first meaning of prayer is to obtain God. Regrettably, many believers pray often and for long periods of time, but they do not seem to obtain much of the element of God, because they do not understand the meaning of prayer. They have not seen that prayer is to contact God and obtain Him.
Ironing is an example. Clothes that are placed under an electric iron absorb heat from the iron and, as a result, get hot. A sister in Taipei was ironing her clothes one night and forgot to unplug the iron when she finished. As a result, the ironing board absorbed heat from the iron and caught on fire. This illustration of absorbing heat through contact with an electric iron explains the meaning of prayer. To pray is to contact God and to absorb Him in that contact. Thus, the importance of prayer does not depend on how much we say to God or on how much we cry out to Him but on how much we contact Him. The more we contact God, the more we will absorb Him, and the more we absorb Him, the more we will enjoy God and salvation.
Our enjoyment of God’s salvation depends on our absorbing God. Let me say a word here to clear up our inaccurate concepts concerning God and His salvation. Psalm 27:1 says, “Jehovah is my light and my salvation.” This verse does not say that God shines on us but that He is our light, nor does it say that God saves us but that He is our salvation. There are two different statements here. By shining on us and saving us, God is accomplishing something for us. But by being our light and our salvation, God Himself is what we need. When we have God, we have light and salvation. Without God we have neither light nor salvation.
We often say that God has given us His life, but strictly speaking, God has not given us His life; He has given us Himself as life. The New Testament does not say that God has given His life to us; rather, it says, “Christ our life” (Col. 3:4). This means that God is our life. Apart from God, we have nothing. He does not give us some of His light, salvation, power, or grace; rather, what He gives is just Himself. He is light, salvation, power, and grace. Hence, light, salvation, power, and grace are inseparable from Him. For example, electricity is the electric light in a lamp, the electric heat in an iron, and the electric power in a fan. Electricity is light to meet one need, heat to meet another need, and power to meet yet another need. Similarly, light is God, salvation is God, power is God, and grace is God. Every spiritual need that we have is God Himself. God has not given us anything besides Himself. Hence, if we lose God, we lose everything; that is, we have nothing.
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