The best prayer is to pray to God as a friend; Abraham was the friend of God, and his interceding was an intimate conversation between two friends, an intimate talk according to the unveiling of God’s heart’s desire. Inquiring prayers honor God; David knew how to pray because he often inquired of Jehovah (see 1 Sam. 23:2, 4; 30:8; 2 Sam. 2:1; 5:19, 23).
For example, after God spoke to David through Nathan the prophet, David “sat before Jehovah” (7:18) and told the Lord, “Do as You have spoken” (v. 25); he then told the Lord that because of His speaking, “Your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You” (v. 27).
Again and again, David did not only ask the Lord to speak to him, but he inquired of the Lord, and he inquired of Him step-by-step.
David didn’t just aspire to “dwell in the house of the Lord and inquire in His temple! (Psa. 27:4); he practiced this in his daily living.
Many times he asked the Lord whether he should go to chase after the enemies and whether the Lord will give him the victory; he asked the Lord whether he should go this way or do that.
The Lord wants to be our friend; He wants us to talk to Him, open to Him, and know what is in His heart, so that we may pray His heart back to Him.
In the church life, we may have a feeling to take care of a new believer, and we can ask the Lord, How do You feel about this person, Lord? When should I go visit him? Or when should I invite this one to my house? Or should we go out for a meal or a coffee? What should I talk to this person about? Should I ask this or should I share that?
Again and again, step by step, we need to converse with the Lord, opening to Him, for He is our friend; the best prayer is to pray to God as a friend, not merely asking Him to do things for us but even more, being in His presence, spending time with Him, allowing Him to speak to us, and seeking His leading in all things.
The Best Prayer is to Pray to God as a Friend, Interceding before God by Living in Intimate Fellowship with God
In Genesis 18 we see that the God of heaven humbled Himself in order to befriend Abraham; He came to Abraham as a man, and He opened His heart to Abraham.
When we know God as a friend – not only as our Lord, our King, our Head, or our Husband but as our friend, our prayer life and our way of praying will change.
The best prayer is to pray to God as a friend, interceding before God by living in intimate fellowship with God.
After Abraham was circumcised and his natural strength was terminated (Gen. 13:3-4), he lived in intimate fellowship with God and became God’s friend (17:1-16; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23).
This should also be our experience: we need to be circumcised and have our natural strength terminated, and we will live in intimate fellowship with God to be His friend.
In Gen. 18:1-33 Abraham made a glorious intercession before God, but his intercession was a human, intimate conversation between two friends.
It wasn’t prayer and fasting, all night praying and interceding before God; it was an intimate conversation between two friends.
Before God told Abraham about what He was about to do in Sodom, God talked to Himself and said, I can’t hide this from Abraham, for I know him.
God needed an intercessor; He knew that Abraham was such a person, for Abraham was God’s friend.
In our Christian life, there will be a time when we realize that God needs a friend – He needs us not only to pray to Him as men on earth or as members of the Body to the Head of the Body but also pray to God as a friend, interceding before God in intimate fellowship with God.
When we enter into this stage of our Christian life, everything will change, for we are God’s friend, He is our friend, and we will speak to Him even as we speak to a friend.
God came to visit Abraham two times: first in Gen. 13 when He came to tell Abraham that he will have a son, Isaac, and second when He came to seek for an intercessor for Lot.
Even before the incarnation (John 1:14), Jehovah as Christ appeared to Abraham in a human form, with a human body, and communed with him on a human level; as Abraham was enjoying sweet fellowship with God, he received a revelation from Him regarding the birth of Isaac and the destruction of Sodom.
In our fellowship with the Lord, in our intimate contact with Him, He comes to us on a human level, as our friend, to give us a revelation of Christ and to expose and remove sin.
As we fellowship with the Lord intimately, as we absorb God, we receive revelation concerning Christ as our everything and the judgment of God over sin.
The birth of Isaac is related to the coming of Christ as grace, and the destruction of Sodom is related to God’s judgment upon sin; this means that Christ must come in and sin must go out.
In Gen. 18 God revealed His intention to destroy Sodom because He was seeking an intercessor to intercede for Lot (vv. 16-22; 19:1; cf. Heb. 7:25; Isa. 59:16; Ezek. 22:30).
God knew that Lot was part of the people of God, and He wanted to save him in order to protect Christ’s genealogy through Ruth, a Moabitess and a descendant of Lot (Gen. 19:37; Ruth 1:4; Matt. 1:5).
God could have just saved Lot, and He wanted to, but He needed an intercessor, someone on earth who prayed for Lot according to God.
God limits Himself to our cooperation; He knew that, if He told Abraham about the destruction of Sodom, he would pray and intercede for Lot.
If something happened to Lot, it would have affected God’s entire economy going forward; his rescue was much more than saving a man and his family – it was God’s need.
Thus, in god’s intimate fellowship with Abraham, in a mysterious way, without even mentioning Lot’s name, God revealed His heart’s desire (Gen. 18:17, 20-23).
The proper intercession is not initiated by us, men, but by God’s revelation; therefore, intercession expresses God’s desire and carries out God’s will (Gen. 19:27-29; Psa. 27:4-8; Heb. 4:16; 7:25; James 5:17).
Apparently, Abraham was interceding for Sodom, but actually, he was interceding for Lot by implication (Gen. 14:12; 18:23; 19:1, 27-29), showing us that we should intercede for God’s people who have drifted into the world.
When Abraham got the understanding that God will destroy Sodom, he didn’t just pray, “Lord, please save my nephew Lot!”
Rather, he “challenged” God by saying, Will You really destroy the good with the wicked? If there are fifty righteous men, will You destroy them with the whole city?
Only God’s intimate friend could say that to him; Abraham’s intercession doesn’t even resemble what we call prayer – it is a conversation, very human, not religious in any way.
He didn’t ask God for anything specifically, except that, if there were some righteous ones in Sodom, maybe they would be saved.
The best prayer is to pray to God as a friend; we need to live in intimate fellowship with God and even be God’s friend so that He would show us what is in His heart and we would converse with Him as a friend, even challenging God according to His righteousness so that He would do what He wants to do.
May we come to the Lord and fellowship with Him day by day, even tell Him,
Lord Jesus, keep us in an intimate fellowship with God so that we may be God’s friend. Amen, Lord, take us on with You until we pray not merely as a man to God in heaven but pray to God as a friend. We want to live day by day in intimate fellowship with God and become God’s friend. Draw us, Lord, and keep our whole being open to You. May we learn to have many human, intimate conversations between us and You, opening our heart to You and receiving a revelation of Your heart’s desire. Infuse Your heart’s desire into us, Lord, and make Your heart’s desire become our heart’s desire. Thank You for coming to visit us and be with us where we are; thank You for revealing Your heart’s desire to us. We open to You, dear Lord, and we simply say Amen to what You want to do, echoing back Your heart’s desire to You so that You can do what You want to do. Remove any barriers between us, Lord, so that we may live in intimate fellowship with You and pray to God as a friend!
We must Linger in God’s Presence to have Intimate Conversations with God according to His Heart’s Desire
In Gen. 18 we don’t see Abraham begging God or imploring Him to save Lot; he didn’t beg God according to His love and grace but rather, he challenged God according to His righteous way (see Gen. 18:23-25; Rom. 1:17).
God’s righteousness binds Him much more than His love and grace to, and if we pray to God as a friend in our intimate fellowship with God, we will not beg or implore Him to do this or that but challenge Him to do it.
Intercession is an intimate conversation with God according to the inward intention of His heart; for this, we must learn to linger in the presence of God (see Gen. 18:25-32).
Abraham didn’t just thank the Lord for coming to visit him and have a meal with him; rather, he walked with the Lord, even though the two angels left, and he lingered in God’s presence.
When we linger in God’s presence, He will have to say something to us.
If we stay a bit longer in God’s presence, even asking Him if He wants to say anything else to us, He will have so much to tell us.
Many times, however, we are too fast in our time with the Lord; we are in a hurry in our prayer time with Him.
If we slow down, take time to be with the Lord, and linger in His presence, we will have a proper understanding of His heart’s desire.
If we come to the Lord and tell Him to do this and do that, and then say Amen and goodbye, the Lord cannot speak to us; He doesn’t have a chance to speak to us.
But if we linger in His presence even as Abraham did and pray as a friend to God, remaining until He finishes speaking, He will unveil His heart to us.
Abraham’s intercession did not end with Abraham’s speaking but God’s; genuine intercession is God’s speaking in our speaking (John 15:7; Rom. 8:26-27).
We do not know what to pray as is fitting, but the Spirit groans in us and intercedes for us, for He intercedes for us according to God.
Genuine intercession is not our fervent pleading before God, neither is it initiated by us; it is God’s speaking and praying in our praying and speaking.
In our intimate fellowship with God, we receive the revelation that all the impossibilities become possibilities with Christ (Gen. 18:10-15; 21:1-8; Luke 18:27).
In Abraham’s case, it was humanly impossible for him and his wife to have a child, but it was not impossible with God; to God all things are possible.
We need to be and remain in intimate fellowship with God, and here we realize that even though what God desires to do is impossible with man, it is possible with God, so we pray to God as a friend, asking according to His desire.
There are two aspects of prayer: entering into fellowship with God and receiving a revelation of His intention, and inquiring of Him by petitioning Him concerning His will and burden for the work (see Isa. 62:6-7; 45:11; Ezek. 22:30; Dan. 9:2-4; 1 Sam. 12:23; 1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1a).
First, we enter into fellowship with God and remain in intimate fellowship with Him; here, under His shining and in His presence, we see what is in His heart, and He gives us a burden for the work. It is Him who initiates the work by first revealing the desire of His heart to us in our intimate fellowship with God.
Then, the spontaneous reaction is that we work together with God in prayer by inquiring of Him, by petitioning Him concerning His will and His burden for the work.
In this way, we carry out the purpose of prayer by coordinating with God to co-work with God.
Lord Jesus, we come to You to enter into fellowship with You. Anoint us with Yourself and grant us Your burden for the work You want to do. We open our whole being to You, Lord; reveal Your intention to us so that we may inquire of You. Oh Lord, we petition to You concerning Your will and Your burden for the work. Keep us in intimate fellowship with God so that we may realize that all the impossibilities with man become possibilities with Christ. Amen, Lord, we are joined to Your desire through Your word. We want to linger in Your presence so that we may know what You want to do, what is Your desire, and speak Your desire back to You in prayer. May we learn to pray as a friend to God by remaining in intimate fellowship with God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by bro. Mark Raabe on this topic, and portions from, Life-Study of Genesis, msgs. 50-51 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 4, entitled, Prayer to Absorb God and to Express God by Praying to God as a Friend So That We Can Co-work with God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, / By the pow’r of grace divine; / Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, / And my will be lost in Thine. / O the pure delight of a single hour / That before Thy throne I spend, / When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God, / I commune as friend with friend! (Hymns #387)
– Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / In the spirit seek His face; / Ask and listen in His presence, / Waiting in the secret place. (Hymns #784)
– By prayer and faith, O may we learn / To labor, Lord, with Thee, / To know the victory is ours / And Thine authority. (Hymns #767)
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