Dear saints, in light of the current world situation, the co-workers in the Lord’s recovery feel that now is the time to call on the saints in every place to pray in one accord as the one new man for the Lord’s interests on the earth. To facilitate this burden, we have set up a new website, unceasinglypray.org.
This site is intended to foster round-the-clock, global prayer for 21 days, from April 1 to April 21, 2020. Visit unceasinglypray.org to:
- Sign up to receive prayer burdens and reminders via email
- Read an introductory letter from the co-workers
- Select 15-minute daily time slots to pray
- Pray over 21 suggested points for the saints’ intercession
- Confirm participation in this prayer ministry
If we avail ourselves of this opportunity, even while we are under restriction outwardly we will increase our spiritual capacity to carry out the most important service of the church, which is prayer. We believe that because of the strong one accord and rich blending among the co-workers and the churches, we, as the Lord’s Body, are more able than ever before to put on the whole armor of God to stand for the Lord’s interests against all the spiritual forces of evil.
To meet the need at this crucial juncture, we call on all the saints from every continent, nation, and locality in the Lord’s recovery to pray with watchfulness and perseverance so that the Lord will have a way to advance the divine history within human history for the fulfillment of His purpose at the end of this age. Please spread the word so that as many saints as possible can join in this global prayer of the one new man.
Announcement by, The brothers coordinating the affairs for the 21 days of prayer. More details at UnceasignlyPray.org website. Read the announcement via this link. Also read it via LivingtoHim.com and AgeTurners.com.
Update: the 21 days of prayer has been extended to 30 days. See the letter from the brothers here.
Letter from the Coworkers | Extending to 30 Days of Prayer | 30 April 2020 Letter: Prayer during May | Suggested Points for Prayer
Letter from the Coworkers of the Lord’s Recovery Concerning 21 Days of Prayer
“Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind Jehovah, do not be dumb; and do not give Him quiet until He establishes and until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” —Isaiah 62:6-7
March 31, 2020
Dear saints,
The church of God has a strategic twofold commission—to pray to God and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to men. We often focus on the work that we do for the Lord in reaching men, but the prayer ministry of the church is actually much more important. The present situation on the earth is a call for all the saints in the Lord’s recovery to rise up to fulfill the neglected function of the church: to cooperate with God in prayer for the advancement of His interests on the earth. To that end, we are asking the saints in the churches around the globe to sign up for a fifteen-minute time slot every day from April 1 to April 21, 2020 to pray in private or with companions. We will provide some suggestions concerning what to pray for, but first let us enter into a fundamental understanding of the type of prayer the Lord needs.
Too often we think of prayer as something we do only when we are aware of a particular spiritual or practical need or when we want to accomplish something for the Lord in a way of service, whether personally, with others, or as the church. Prayer for these things is legitimate and even necessary, but the highest and deepest prayers in the New Testament are, first and foremost, for God’s work in the saints and for His move on the earth (Phil. 1:9-11; Eph. 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Acts 4:24-31; Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:2-4). Intercessory prayer is a matter of co-laboring with Christ in His heavenly ministry. Such prayer is the pinnacle of the church’s service to Christ. He as the heavenly Intercessor needs His people on the earth to echo His desire. Matthew 18:18 says, “Truly I say to you, Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Brother Watchman Nee helped us see from this verse that God in the heavens is waiting for the church to execute His will on the earth through prayer. Something may have been bound or loosed in the heavens, but it is only through the church’s prayer that it can be bound or loosed on the earth.
The book of Revelation shows us God’s divine administration in His consummating of this age. In this book we do not see the churches carrying out so many activities. Rather, we see prayer in relation to God’s governmental move. The saints’ prayers are present in the scene in heaven at Christ’s ascension and the opening of the scroll of God’s economy (Rev. 5:8). God responds to the cry of the martyred saints (6:9-10) with the opening of the sixth seal, which marks the beginning of the great tribulation (vv. 12-17). After Christ as “another Angel” offers the saints’ prayers with Himself as the incense before the throne, fire is cast to the earth followed by supernatural calamities, marking the beginning of God’s judgment of the earth and its inhabitants (8:3-5). In each case the prayers mentioned have dispensational significance and enable God to carry out His administration.
The Lord desires to end this age and to establish His kingdom on the earth (Rev. 11:15; 12:10). He is waiting for an adequate number of believers to be made ready as His Bride and as His army (Rev. 19:7, 14). Now, more than ever before, we should beseech the Father according to Matthew 6:9-10 that His name would be sanctified, that His kingdom would come, and that His will would be done on the earth. On the one hand, the pandemic that is currently wreaking havoc throughout the world is a warning from the Lord to the nations. On the other hand, it is a call from the Lord to His people to carry out His commission to be one with the ascended Christ at the incense altar and match His intercession.
The Bible shows us that the created race of Adam, the called race of Abraham, and the church as a whole all failed God in cooperating with Him to accomplish His purpose. For this reason, in Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord called for overcomers. We must realize that God’s move depends upon overcomers, and a key characteristic of overcomers is their prayer. The martyred saints crying out beneath the altar in Revelation 6 become the overcoming man-child in chapter 12, and when the man-child is caught up to heaven, Satan is cast down (12:5, 9). One aspect of the Lord’s recovery today is to produce overcomers who will fully cooperate with the Lord so that His purpose can be fulfilled and He can return. We must be those overcomers who are praying at the incense altar in the house of God to correspond with Christ, our heavenly High Priest, and to cooperate with God by praying on the earth what is out from His throne.
The saints in the churches in the Lord’s recovery should all aspire to be overcomers. However, we must realize that such spiritual warriors are not produced overnight. We need to build up our praying and fighting capacity. We believe that the unprecedented restriction many of us find ourselves under is sovereign of the Lord to grant us the opportunity to recover and uplift both our personal and corporate prayer life. If you read the New Testament carefully, you will realize that the apostle Paul’s ability to minister from prison was quite limited, but he prayed much. Similarly, Brother Nee carried out his public ministry for thirty years, but while he was in prison during the last twenty years of his life, he could minister only in a limited way to those around him. Yet during that time of confinement, he was able to join with the interceding Christ in a hidden ministry of prayer.
We are accustomed to viewing all the provisions of God, the bountiful supply of the Spirit, and the riches that we have received from this ministry as the spiritual supply for our growth in life for the building up of the church. This is not wrong, but we should realize that all these things are also to strengthen us to carry out the church’s paramount ministry of prayer. We need to read the Bible, know the anointing, and be nourished by the ministry of the age so that we can know how to pray according to God’s will and not our own. We all want to have the Lord’s presence, but we should realize that the Lord’s promise to be with us when we gather together in His name is in the context of two or three offering binding and loosing prayer in harmony with one another and with God’s will (Matt. 18:18-20).
Finally, as we join ourselves to the Lord in prayer, we need to remember Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8:48, in which he spoke of God’s people praying to God toward the holy land, typifying Christ as the portion allotted by God to His people; toward the holy city, signifying the kingdom of God in Christ; and toward the holy temple, signifying God’s house, the church, on the earth. This indicates that God will listen to our prayer when our prayer to God is toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s eternal economy. This means that no matter who we are praying for, our prayers should be aimed at the interests of God on earth, that is, at Christ and the church, for the fulfilling of His economy.
Brothers and sisters, we need to advance. We should be deliberate during these days to build up this ministry of prayer, both personally and with one another. All our shortages, whether individual or corporate, can be traced back to the lack of prayer. Presently, we may not be able to pray that strongly or for very long, but the restrictions we face afford us a way to build up our capacity for prayer if we have a mind to persevere. Moreover, though we may be isolated physically, the Lord has given us a way through modern technology to still pray together. To seize this opportunity we need to budget our time and exercise to pray in a regular way.
The saints in the churches in the Lord’s recovery have never been so ready to enter into such prayer. Today, more than ever, there is a strong one accord and rich blending among the co-workers and the churches on the earth. We can truly pray as one Body, even as one new man, joined to Christ, our ascended Head. Together let us put on the whole armor of God to stand against the rulers and authorities of darkness and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies. Let us continue steadfastly to pray at every time and in every place for God’s will to be done on the earth.
Therefore, to meet the need at this crucial juncture, we call on all the saints from every continent, nation, and locality in the Lord’s recovery to attend to this prayer ministry watchfully and earnestly. Specifically, it is our hope that many would participate in this worldwide, round-the-clock prayer as appointed watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6) for these 21 days and until there is praise to Him throughout the earth!
The co-workers in the Lord’s recovery
“And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints out of the hand of the Angel before God. And the Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.” —Rev. 8:4-5
Join in with saints and local churches from around the world to pray unceasingly via the UnceasinglyPray.org website. You can register and then choose a time slot to pray. And, most importantly, let us all pray!
Letter from the co-workers: extending the prayer to 30 days
We worship the Lord that He has stirred up so many of you to participate in the present burden for twenty-one days of prayer. Never before have so many across the entire globe joined together in one accord to pray as one man in such a sustained way. We are confident that our ascended Lord hears the church’s prayers and that they will avail much toward the accomplishment of His desire. After further consideration and fellowship, we have decided to ask all the saints to steadfastly continue this prayer for an additional nine days, that is, through April 30.
Our hope is that this month of prayer will not simply be a passing event but will greatly strengthen our personal prayer life and the corporate prayer ministry of the church. Prayer is our greatest work before God, and it is also the greatest threat to God’s enemy. For this reason, Satan seeks to weaken our prayer life and the church’s prayer ministry. Knowing this, the apostle Paul joined perseverance and prayer (Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2; cf. 1 Thes. 5:17). Consistency and persistence in the face of obstacles are crucial to building up a prayer life and prayer ministry. This is not only the apostle’s teaching; it is also extensively illustrated in the Word of God.
As Joshua led the Israelites into battle against Amalek, Moses stood on a hill with his staff uplifted (Exo. 17:9-10). Verse 11 says, “And when Moses lifted his hand up, Israel prevailed; and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.” Moses lifting up his hand on the mountaintop typifies the ascended Christ interceding in the heavens (Rom. 8:34b; Heb. 7:25; cf. 1 Tim. 2:8), and Joshua typifies Christ as the indwelling Spirit fighting against the flesh, typified by Amalek (Rom. 8:9-11; Gal. 5:16-17). This means that victory in spiritual warfare depends very much on Christ’s intercession. However, verse 12 tells us that Moses’ hands became heavy and in need of support. As one whose hands became heavy, Moses represents not Christ but us, signifying that while Christ is praying in the heavens, we too need to pray on earth (1 Tim. 2:8). A stone, which typifies Christ as our strength and steadiness in prayer, was brought in for Moses to sit on. Moreover, his hands were supported on one side by Aaron, representing the priesthood, and on the other side by Hur, representing the kingship. This means that to persevere in intercessory prayers of warfare, we must be priests who exercise to pray in our spirit, today’s Holy of Holies, and we must be in full submission to the Lord under His authority.
Daniel was a person who, knowing the promise of God regarding Israel’s return from captivity (Jer. 29:10), persevered in prayer for the Lord’s desire (Dan. 9:2-3). He had the habit of praying three times daily (6:10) and would not let anything frustrate his prayer, not even the threat of death (vv. 7-9). Daniel was thus a channel of prayer the Lord could use to carry out His desire. Regarding Daniel chapter 6, Brother Lee said, “God desires to carry out His economy, but man is needed to pray for His economy on earth. God carries out His economy on the earth through His faithful channels of prayer. Satan’s strategy is to frustrate the prayer which is for God’s move…There is no other way to bring God’s economy into fullness and into fulfillment except by prayer” (Life-study of Daniel, p. 45). Daniel’s cooperation with the Lord in prayer afforded the Lord a way to take a great step in His move.
Today the Lord is seeking prayers of dispensational value, prayers that match God’s heart, prayers for the advancement of God’s move, prayers for the preparation of the bride, prayers for the producing of the overcomers as the Lord’s army, prayers for the defeat of God’s enemy, prayers that change the age. The prayers of the saints and of the church are a significant factor in effecting the dispensational change from the present age to the kingdom age (Luke 18:1-8; Rev. 6:9-10; 8:3-5). To persevere in such prayers, we surely need the Lord’s empowering (Eph. 6:10).
Dear saints, the Lord wants to raise up a royal priesthood to join with Him as the ascended Intercessor in His heavenly ministry of intercession. With this in view, we urge you to continue our present round-the-clock global prayer through the end of this month, and we encourage you to invite others to join in this prayer. If you have not already done so, you can visit unceasinglypray.org to sign up for a time slot to pray. May the Lord do what He desires within us, and may our prayers lay the tracks for Him to carry out His heart’s desire on the earth.
Your brothers in Christ,
The co-workers in the Lord’s recovery
As of Thursday, April 30, we are concluding our global, round-the-clock prayer. However, we encourage all the saints who have signed up to continue to pray as the Lord leads and not to stop because the 30 days are over. We strongly suggest taking the 30 suggested prayer burdens and praying through them again during the month of May. The website will remain active, so saints can still sign up for prayer slots if they wish. You will continue to receive daily prayer emails for the next 30 days, and we will also introduce a daily portion of the ministry on intercessory prayer.
Letter from the Co-Workers on 30 April 2020
Dear saints,
How we thank the Lord for His abundant supply to the churches and the saints in His recovery that has enabled so many to intercede as one man over this past month. There has never been such global, round-the-clock prayer in the history of His recovery. Though we feel to bring this coordinated labor to a close on April 30, we hope in the Lord that this will not be just a season of prayer but that He will sustain us all to continue to advance in our personal prayer life and in the corporate prayer ministry of the church.
We believe that every saint who has taken up this burden has gained some realization of the perseverance required for intercessory prayer (Col. 4:2). This is because in the unseen realm there is a war raging between God and his enemy, Satan. Of course, God’s purpose will ultimately be fulfilled, but how quickly that happens and who appears to be winning the battle at a particular time depends on how much God’s people cooperate with Him in prayer. Satan knows this, so he seeks by all means to frustrate our prayer. In fact, because the entire tide of this age is against our prayer, Brother Lee told us, “Persevering in prayer is like rowing a boat upstream. If you do not persevere, you will be carried downstream by the current. No doubt, to persevere in this way, either in rowing or in praying, requires a great deal of energy” (Life-study of Colossians, p. 580). Because of this, we need the Lord’s empowering (Eph. 6:10).
Brother Lee gave some practical tips to help us persevere in prayer. First, he charged us to have a thorough dealing with the Lord and even make a vow to Him concerning our prayer life. Such a vow expresses our aspiration to be a praying person, while acknowledging that we need the Lord to enable us to be faithful to fulfill our vow. Second, we need to set aside one or more definite times every day to pray (Dan. 6:10). We should consider prayer the most important thing and not allow anything to usurp these times or to interrupt our prayer. Third, we need to be mindful of our speaking during our daily life, as loose talk dampens our praying spirit (Eph. 4:29-30; cf. 1 Thes. 5:19 and footnote). Fourth, we need to use our spirit, exercise our will, calm our mind, and regulate our emotions in order to pray properly (Eph. 6:18; 2 Tim. 1:7; 1 Pet. 4:7). Fifth, experience teaches us that praying with a companion helps us to develop more consistency in our prayer (see Life-study of Colossians, pp. 581-583, and Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 552-555, for more detail on these helpful practices).
Exercising to pray in such a way has tremendous benefits. It causes us to be mingled with the Lord so that we become a reproduction of Him as a man of prayer (Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16). It causes us to set our mind on the things above instead of on earthly matters related to our own interests (Col. 3:2). It enables us to join with the interceding ministry of the ascended Christ for God’s interests on the earth (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). This intercessory prayer, which is in Christ and with Christ as the incense, is “not prayer for ourselves but prayer for the carrying out of the divine administration, for the dispensing of God’s supplying grace, and for the churches and the saints. Such prayer is a fragrant incense to God—it fulfills His purpose, satisfies His desire, and delights His heart” (Exo. 30:7, footnote 1). Furthermore, as we come forward to the throne of grace in prayer, we receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16). Our prayer will bring blessing to ourselves, to our churches, and to our nations.
Whether in our estimation we succeeded or failed in our prayer over the past thirty days, we need to press on and advance from this point forward. We strongly encourage all the saints to take the thirty suggested prayer burdens on unceasinglypray.org and pray over them again during the month of May. We believe that if you go back to pray over these thirty items and the verses that accompany them, you will realize there is still much that requires our continued intercession. May the Lord strengthen His recovery and make us His house of prayer (Mark 11:17). Let us praise our merciful and faithful High Priest who is higher than the heavens (Heb. 2:17; 7:26) and who brings us into oneness with Him in His heavenly ministry of intercession (James 5:17 and footnote).
Your brothers in Christ,
The co-workers in the Lord’s recovery
Suggested Points for Prayer
Many matters require the church’s prayer. The items of prayer listed below are offered as a help to focus and enrich the prayer of the saints and of the churches. They are not meant to be restrictive or exhaustive, nor are they meant to be legally adopted. In the end, it is the Spirit who intercedes for us, in us, and through us according to God and His will.
The intercessors’ responsibility is to be one spirit with the Lord and one mind with Christ to discharge the inner burden with Spirit-inspired utterances. In light of the current global pandemic, let us persevere in prayer with a strong spirit over the next 21 days:
Day 1: Prayer According to Matt. 6 (Matt. 6:9–10; Rev. 11:15).
Pray for the Father’s name to be sanctified (Matt. 6:9b), for His kingdom to come (Matt. 6:10a; Rev. 11:15); and for His will to be done on the earth (Matt. 6:10b).
If we touch Paul’s spirit in 1 Timothy 2:1-7, we shall sense his burden that those who take the lead in the church life must have a prayer life. In these verses Paul seems to be telling Timothy, “I have shown you a clear picture of God’s economy and how it is versus different teachings. I have also pointed out to you that, in His mercy, the Lord has made me a pattern of His economy. I have also charged you solemnly to war the good warfare on behalf of God’s economy. Now deep in my spirit is the burden to exhort you to pray. I exhort that petitions, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men. Do not think that teaching comes before prayer. No, prayer must be first, and teaching, second.” (Life-study of 1 Timothy, p. 27)
Day 2: Prayer for the New Man and the Bride (Eph. 1:9-10, 23; 4:13, 16; 5:27; Rev. 19:7).
Pray for God’s good pleasure to be fulfilled, His purpose to be accomplished, and His economy to be carried out (Eph. 1:9-10) that He might have the church as Christ’s built-up Body and a fullgrown new man to express Him (v. 23; 4:13, 16), and as Christ’s prepared bride to satisfy Him in love (5:27; Rev. 19:7).
The first clear mention of intercession in the Bible is in Genesis 18, where we see that Abraham was the first intercessor…In [this chapter] we not only have a story of intercession but a clear revelation of the basic principles of intercession. Intercession is a great thing in the Bible. Without it God’s economy cannot be accomplished. The excellent ministry of Christ today as our kingly and divine High Priest is a ministry of intercession. Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25 both tell us that Christ is interceding for us. Since this matter of intercession is so important, we must devote an entire message to it, mainly considering the basic principles of intercession. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 677)
Day 3: Prayer for World Affairs (Dan. 4:17; Rev. 1:5; Prov. 21:1; Dan. 2:21).
Pray for God in Christ to rule over all world affairs (Dan. 4:17; Rev. 1:5), to turn the hearts of kings to do His will (Prov. 21:1), and to raise up and put down leaders as He sees fit (Dan. 2:21).
In principle, Abraham’s intercession for Lot was like the intercession in the church in the New Testament. In Abraham’s time, God’s people on earth were composed of two families, the families of Abraham and Lot. A part of God’s people, Lot’s family, had drifted into the wicked city of Sodom. In like manner, some of the church people have drifted into the world. Just as Abraham interceded for that part of God’s people who had drifted into Sodom, so we must intercede for the brothers and sisters who have drifted into the world. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 682)
Day 4: Prayer for Those in Authority (1 Tim. 2:2).
Pray for those in authority to have the wisdom to discharge their responsibilities and govern righteously according to God so that the church may go on in peace and tranquility (1 Tim. 2:2).
I believe that many in the Lord’s recovery will be brought into this kind of intercession. When God came down to visit Abraham on a human level, He was seeking one intercessor. Today God has come down to the human level once again…to seek…a corporate people. I believe that in not too long a time there will be a people on earth absolutely like Abraham, knowing the heart of God and making a challenging intercession in His presence. We may say to God, “Lord, don’t You know that You have promised us definitely in the New Testament to finish the good work that You have begun?”…We should not weep and beg but should challenge God…He wants to hear our challenging intercession. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 686)
Day 5: Prayer for the God’s ultimate move over the whole earth.
Pray for God’s ultimate move over the whole earth to gain a people who know the wonderful, all-inclusive Christ, who experience Him as their life and live Him, and who are transformed and built up to be His Body and ultimately His prepared bride for His return (Acts 17:26-27; Phil. 1:21a; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 19:7).
[One Christian who was very experienced in prayer] said that all spiritual work consists of four steps. In the first step, God intends to do something; there is God’s will. In the second step, He reveals this will to His children through the Spirit so that they know His will, His plan, His desire, and His aspiration. In the third step, God’s children return His will back to Him through prayer. Prayer is the echoing of God’s will. If our heart is in tune with God’s heart, spontaneously we will speak forth God’s will. As a result God will accomplish His work in the fourth step.
If our prayer is only for the fulfillment of our plans and wishes, it will not have any value in the spiritual realm. Only the prayers that are initiated by God and that echo what He has initiated have any worth. God’s work is governed by prayers. God is willing to do many things, but He will not do them when His people do not pray. He must wait for man to agree with Him before He will do them. This is a great principle of God’s work, and it is also one of the most crucial principles in the Bible. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, pp. 281-282)
Day 6: Prayer for the Gospel (Rev. 6:1-2; Rom. 2:4; Acts 26:20; Mark 1:15; 1 Tim. 2:4a).
Pray for the white horse of the gospel to run and for the long-suffering God to lead men to repent, to turn to Him and believe the gospel according to His desire that all men be saved (Rev. 6:1-2; Rom. 2:4; Acts 26:20; Mark 1:15; 1 Tim. 2:4a).
Romans 8:26 and 27…tell us that we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Holy Spirit intercedes in us according to God’s purpose. Actually, we do not know how to pray. We know what people ordinarily call supplication, but we know little about the prayer which is spoken of in the Scriptures. The first time I read these two verses in Romans 8, I questioned their meaning. When I was sick, I thought, Did I not pray to God asking Him to heal me? When I was in want, did I not pray to God asking Him to send me provision? How could the Scriptures say that we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting? Gradually, the Lord showed me that we really do not know anything about the kind of prayer that God desires…This is our weakness. Thank God, in this matter of our weakness, the Spirit Himself joins in to help us and intercede for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Brothers, real prayers are the Holy Spirit within man expressing God’s desire through man. In other words, real prayers are prayers involving two parties. They are not simply man alone praying to God, but they are the Spirit mingling with man, putting on man, and joining with man in prayer. Outwardly it is man praying, but inwardly it is the Spirit praying. This means two parties express the same prayer at the same time. Please remember that this alone is the prayer which is spoken of in the Scriptures. (Lessons on Prayer, pp. 18-19)
Day 7: Prayer for the Persecuted, Oppressed, and Suffering (1 Pet. 4:12-14; 5:9-10).
Pray for the God of all grace to comfort, perfect, and establish the brothers and sisters throughout the earth, especially those who are persecuted, oppressed, and suffering deprivation and trials (1 Pet. 4:12-14; 5:9-10).
[Revelation 8:5] says, “And the Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.”…God’s judgment upon the earth is the answer to the prayers of the saints with Christ as the incense. Although the sixth seal has been opened and the seven trumpets are ready to be sounded, nothing happens until Christ comes to offer the saints’ prayers to God with Himself as the incense. At that time, there are thunders, voices, lightnings, and an earthquake. This indicates that while God has the intention of executing His judgment upon the earth, there is still the need of the saints to cooperate with Him with their prayers. (Life-study of Revelation, pp. 279-280)
Day 8: Prayer for the Dormant, Wayward, and Backslidden (Eph. 5:14; James 5:19; Gal. 6:1).
Pray for the dormant believers to be enlivened, the wayward Christians to be recovered, and the backslidden saints to be restored to the Lord and to the fellowship of the church (Eph. 5:14; James 5:19; Gal. 6:1).
The prayer life of Christ is the center of God’s execution of His government on earth. Revelation 8 indicates this. But some who read chapter eight of Revelation may say, “In Revelation 8 we cannot see Christ’s prayer. We can see only the prayers of the saints.” The saints, however, are one with Christ. The prayers in Revelation 8 no longer are merely the prayers of the individual Christ, but have become the prayers of the corporate Christ. In the matter of the execution that takes place at the incense altar, the saints truly are one with Christ. Therefore, when we speak in this message of the prayer life of Christ, we mean the prayer life of the corporate Christ. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1594-1595)
Day 9: Prayer for the Scattered Believers (Acts 9:2; Acts 26:19; Ezra 1:5; Ezek. 36:24).
Pray for the scattered believers to see the heavenly vision of God’s eternal purpose, to be stirred up in their spirits to seek the deeper things of Christ and God’s building, and to take the way of God’s New Testament economy (Acts 9:2, Acts 26:19; Ezra 1:5; Ezek. 36:24).
In our experience we need to come to the altar, the laver, the table, the lampstand, and the ark. According to my study of the Bible, after we come to the ark in the Holy of Holies, we need to come back to the incense altar. The incense altar is not one item on the passageway through the tabernacle. On the contrary, it can be compared to a motor which causes everything to operate. Hence, the incense altar stands by itself as a turning point. Again and again we must come back to this turning point. This means that in order to experience any aspect of the outer court or the tabernacle, we need to pray. When we pray, everything works. When we pray, in our experience the altar, the laver, the table, the lampstand, and the ark are all effective. However, when the motor stops, everything else stops also. When the motor operates, everything else operates. This is the reason that we need to have a motor—the interceding Christ—operating within us. We need to have a prayer life, a life of prayer. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1604)
Day 10: Prayer for One Accord (Rom. 15:6; Col. 3:10-11).
Pray for all the churches to be in a prevailing one accord, glorifying our God and His Christ with one mouth to bring forth the reality of the one new man (Rom. 15:6; Col. 3:10-11).
The picture of the tabernacle portrays Christ as the incarnated God who is available for us to enter. This very Christ is also all the offerings to qualify us by opening the way into God and by filling us inwardly. As a result, we are in God, and God is in us. Therefore, by the time we come to the altar of incense, we are already in God, and God is in us. Because the incense altar is in the center of the tabernacle, which signifies the incarnated God, to be at this altar is to be in the incarnated God. Moreover, when we are in God, He is also in us. At the altar in the outer court we experience the offerings, and we have the blood to cleanse us and the meat to fill us inwardly. This qualifies us to enter into the incarnated God, the One who indwells us as our food, as our life supply. Whoever comes to the incense altar is a person who is in God and who has God in him. He is one with God and mingled with Him. What a great matter this is! (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1611-1612)
Day 11: Prayer for the Churches (Acts 16:5; Eph. 1:19; Col. 1:11; Rev. 1:9).
Pray for the Lord to strengthen, uphold, and prosper the churches in every country in His recovery as the testimony of Jesus (Acts 16:5; Eph. 1:19; Col. 1:11; Rev. 1:9).
In the book of Revelation the incense altar is directly in front of the throne of God’s authority. According to Revelation 8, Christ as another Angel comes and adds His incense to the prayers of the saints. This incense then ascends to God at the throne of administration, and God answers the saints’ prayers. As a result, fire comes down to earth to execute the divine judgments recorded in the remainder of the book of Revelation. This is a picture of the incense altar being the administrating throne of God for God to execute His judgments in His administration. It is important for us to see that the execution of God’s administration is motivated by the prayers offered to Him from the incense altar. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1615)
Day 12: Prayer for the Co-workers and Leading Brothers (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2; Heb. 13:17).
Pray for the Lord to supply the co-workers and leading brothers and grant them wisdom to lead and shepherd His people onward in these days (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2; Heb. 13:17).
Brothers and sisters, if we come to God and remain calm before Him, giving up our thoughts to enter into His thoughts, we will see the great need for prayer, we will see that God is waiting for us to pray about so many things, and we will see that everything around can become the subject of our prayer. In fact the whole earth can become the subject of our prayer. We should not pray according to our feelings. We must mingle our desires with God’s desires and allow God’s desires to become our desires, groanings, and yearnings for the universe. God’s desires cannot be released without first passing through man, and God’s desires, when expressed through man’s desires, will be opposed by the power of Satan. In order to fulfill God’s desire, we have to pray, and in order to remove Satan’s frustration, we have to pray. We have to exercise the authority of prayer and release what should be released and bind what should be bound. We should not pray according to our own desire; we should go to the Lord and pray according to the desire that He has imprinted in us. When God says that something is needed, we should say the same, and when He says that something cannot remain, we should also say the same. We should forget about ourselves and touch God’s desire and express His desire through our prayer. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, pp. 456-457)
Day 13: Prayer for the Saints to be Sanctified (1 Thes. 5:22-23; Rom. 12:2, 4-5).
Pray for the saints to be preserved and sanctified in their tripartite being, to be separated unto God from common and sinful things (1 Thes. 5:22-23), and to not be conformed to this age but to be transformed that they may prove the will of God by living the Body life (Rom 12:2, 4-5).
The deepest type of the types in the Old Testament may be the incense altar in Exodus 30. If we consider this type even superficially, we shall see that it is related to prayer. Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament incense offered to God signifies our prayer to Him. Therefore, in our reading of the Bible, we can realize that the golden altar of incense must in some way be related to prayer.
If we consider this matter in a deeper way, we shall see that actually the incense altar does not refer to our prayer. Rather, it refers to the prayer of Christ, for the altar itself is a type of the person of Christ. It is not a type of Christ’s prayer. The incense altar typifies Christ the person, not His prayer. It signifies Christ praying, Christ interceding. The individual Christ after His resurrection, and especially after His ascension, has become corporate. Thus, today before God not only is the individual Christ interceding, but the corporate Christ, the Head with the Body, is interceding as well. Christ the Head is interceding in the heavens, and the church the Body is interceding on earth. The intercessor, therefore, is not merely Christ Himself, but is Christ with His Body. If we realize this, we shall see that what is signified by the incense altar is something very deep. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1625)
Day 14: Prayer to Possess the All-inclusive Christ (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8, 17-18).
Pray for the saints to fully possess their allotted portion of the all-inclusive, all-extensive Christ by being strengthened with power through the Spirit into their inner man that Christ may make His home in their hearts (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8, 17-18).
If we come into the tabernacle, we cannot go directly to the incense altar. As we have already indicated, first we must go to the showbread table, then to the lampstand, and after that to the ark of testimony in the Holy of Holies. Only then shall we be ready to come to intercede at the incense altar.
Our conduct is versus Christ as life (the bread of the presence table, the showbread table). Our sight is versus Christ as our light (the lampstand). Our virtue is versus Christ as our incense to God (the incense altar). Our conduct, our sight, and our virtue together equal our natural being, which is versus Christ as God’s testimony (the ark). If we have become a heap of ashes, will we still have our natural conduct, our natural sight, and our natural virtue? Certainly not. A heap of ashes does not have any conduct, sight, or virtue. What does a heap of ashes have? It has nothing. To be reduced to ashes is to be reduced to nothing, to zero. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1629-1630)
Day 15: Prayer for the Building up of the Body (Col. 2:6-7; Rom. 8:4; Eph. 4:15-16).
Pray for the saints to walk in Christ by the spirit in their daily life, to grow up into Christ in all things, and to be knit and built together as the Body of Christ (Col. 2:6-7; Rom. 8:4; Eph. 4:15-16).
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see that the proper and genuine prayer life is in God and requires that God be in us; that it is one with the resurrected and ascended Christ as our incense to God; and that it is linked to the crucified Christ by the blood, the fire, and the sweet savor. If we have this kind of prayer we shall be able to live a life that motivates God’s move. This kind of prayer governs God’s dispensation of grace and His administration of His authority. This means that the prayer offered at the incense altar governs the universe. This is a matter of great significance. May our eyes be opened to see it. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1623)
Day 16: Prayer for the God-ordained Way (Acts 2:46-47; 1 Pet. 4:10; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 4:12, 16).
Pray for the saints to use the present circumstances to cultivate a church life that is more vital, more prevailing, more fruitful, and more according to the God-ordained way through the release of the organic function of every saint (Acts 2:46-47; 1 Pet. 4:10; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 4:12, 16).
Revelation 8 shows us how God in His administration is going to judge this age. But this judgment is waiting for the prayers of those who have received both the redemption of the blood and the termination by the cross. It is waiting for the prayers of those who have been resurrected to seek after His heart and who stand on the position of death, thus allowing the resurrected Christ to be joined with their prayers. Those, thence, will be tremendous prayers which can judge and end this age. We repeat, the reason that they are able to pray for such high and great things is because they have been terminated at the cross and are able to allow the resurrected Christ to be added to their prayers. This is the meaning of the incense being added to the prayers. (Lessons on Prayer, pp. 172-173)
Day 17: Prayer for the Saints to be Laboring Priests (Rom. 15:16; 2 Tim. 4:2; Acts 10:24).
Pray for all the saints to be energized as laboring priests of the gospel, who preach the Word in season and out of season to their relatives, friends, colleagues, and people they meet, in order to gain them and offer them as a sanctified offering to God (Rom. 15:16; 2 Tim. 4:2; Acts 10:24).
On earth the church has no greater authority than the authority of doing things in the Lord Jesus’ name. The Lord has committed His name to the church. This is the greatest commitment because this name denotes Himself. Whatever you speak in the name of the Lord Jesus becomes what the Lord Himself speaks. Whatever you ask in the name of the Lord Jesus becomes what He asks. Whatever you decide in the name of the Lord Jesus becomes what the Lord decides. The church has the authority to speak in the name of the Lord. What a commitment God has given to the church! (The Prayer Ministry of the Church, p. 53)
Day 18: Prayer to Continue Steadfastly (Acts 2:42; Matt. 6:6; 18:19-20; Col. 4:2; 1 Thes. 5:17).
Pray for the saints to continue steadfastly in prayer and for their prayer life to be built up personally, in small groups, and in the church meetings until prayer is unceasing (Acts 2:42; Matt. 6:6; 18:19-20; Col. 4:2; 1 Thes. 5:17).
The Bible contains a most lofty and spiritual prayer. But few people pray this prayer, and few pay attention to it. What is this prayer? It is the “prayer of authority.” We know that there are prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving, supplicating prayers, and begging prayers. But few of us know that there is a prayer of authority. A prayer of authority is a commanding prayer. This is the most crucial and most spiritual prayer in the Bible. This kind of prayer is a sign of authority and a declaration of authority.
Brothers and sisters, if you want to be a man of prayer, you have to learn to pray with authority. This kind of prayer is described by the Lord in Matthew 18:18. “Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” In this verse, there is a prayer that is called a binding prayer and a prayer that is called a loosing prayer…Heaven listens to the earth and obeys the command of the earth. Whatever the earth binds will be bound in heaven, and whatever the earth looses will be loosed in heaven. The earth does not pray; it binds and looses. This is to pray with authority. (The Prayer Ministry of the Church, p. 61)
Day 19: Prayer for the Overcomers (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 12:5, 10-11; 14:1-5).
Pray for the saints to respond to the Lord’s calling and be constituted as overcomers to be the Lord’s dispensational instrument to turn the age (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 12:5, 10-11; 14:1-5).
The Bible shows us the relationship between prayer, fasting, and authority. Prayer indicates that we seek after God, while fasting indicates that we deny our self…We have to seek God and deny the self at the same time. When our pursuit of God and our denial of self are joined and mingled together, immediately there is faith. When we have faith, we have the authority to command the demons to go away. Brothers and sisters, if we seek after God but do not deny our self, we do not have faith, and we do not have authority. But if we seek after God and deny our self, immediately we will have faith and authority and be able to utter prayers of faith and authority. Brothers and sisters, the most important prayers and the most spiritual prayers are prayers of authority. (The Prayer Ministry of the Church, pp. 73-74)
Day 20: Prayer to Bind the Enemy (Mark 3:27; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 12:10-11; Luke 18:7).
Pray for the enemy, Satan, to be bound, for the works of the devil to be destroyed, for the accuser of the brothers to be cast down, and for the saints to be avenged of their adversary (Mark 3:27; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 12:10-11; Luke 18:7).
Our weaknesses are most readily manifested in our prayers. Nothing exposes our spiritual weakness more than prayer. We know how difficult it was for the disciples to pray in the garden of Gethsemane; they could not watch and pray. But thank the Lord that we have the mighty Spirit as our help. We must trust in the indwelling Spirit to operate in us according to His power, because He is our help in our time of weakness and foolishness. Although we do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit is in us; He knows the will of God and He will teach us to pray according to God’s will. He will teach us to fellowship with God intelligently and bring us into the reality of fellowship. We should trust in the Christ in whom we believe and the Spirit who sustains us and helps us pray. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, pp. 460-461)
Day 21: Prayer for the Lord’s Return.
Pray for the Lord Jesus to come back quickly (Phil. 3:20; 2 Tim. 4:8; Titus 2:13; Rev. 22:20).
In [Exodus] 17:12 we are told that Aaron and Hur took a stone and put it under Moses, and he sat on it. This indicates that our prayer life must have a solid base…I believe that the stone used as the strong base refers to our realization that in ourselves we are not able to sustain a prayer life. It is the recognition of the fact that we need support. In our natural life we, like Moses, are not able to persevere in prayer. We simply cannot continue our prayer all day long. Thus, we need to realize our weakness. This realization gives us the strong base we need for our prayer life.
Whenever you pray, tell the Lord, “Lord, I am not able to continue in prayer. I need a solid base for my prayer, and I take You as such a base.” (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 547-548)
Day 22: Prayer for the Central Work of God.
Pray for all the saints to open their entire being to the Lord so that He may carry out the central work of God—God building Himself in Christ into us and building us into Himself for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ (Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:14-21; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 12:27).
Day 23: Prayer for Blending.
Pray for the saints to live the Christian life and the church life according to the practical points concerning blending, having the blending of all the individual members of the Body of Christ, all the churches in certain districts, all the co-workers, and all the elders through fellowship and by doing everything through the cross and by the Spirit to minister Christ for the Body, with the goal that in the Lord’s recovery we will be the reality of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13, 23-27).
This kind of prayer requires the constitution of the Holy Spirit in the praying ones. God has to take you to the point where you deny what you want and want only what God wants, and another brother has to be brought by God to the point where he denies what he wants and wants only what God wants. When both you and the brother are brought to this point and are as harmonious as music, whatever you ask will be done for you from the heavenly Father. Brothers and sisters, do not think that as long as you agree in your opinions that your prayers will be answered…Sameness in goal does not guarantee that there will be harmony. We have to realize that it is impossible to have harmony in the flesh. When our natural life is dealt with by the Lord, when one is living in the Holy Spirit and the other is also living in the Holy Spirit and both are living in Christ, there is harmony, the same views, and the prayer in one accord. (The Prayer Ministry of the Church, p. 18)
Day 24: Prayer for God’s Righteous Judgment.
Pray for the saints to offer prayers to which Christ as another Angel can add incense so that from the throne of God the fire of righteous judgment will be cast to the earth to deal with godlessness and lawlessness (Rev. 8:1-8).
Day 25: Prayer to Seek First the Kingdom of God.
Pray for the saints not to be anxious about human life at the present time but to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and serve God alone, not storing up treasures for themselves on earth (Matt. 6:19-34).
Day 26: Prayer to have a Hidden Life with the Father.
Pray for the saints, as kingdom people, children of the heavenly Father, to have a spiritual life that corresponds with the mysterious, hidden nature of the divine life, praying to their heavenly Father in secret, experiencing some secret enjoyment of the Father, and receiving some secret answer from Him (Matt. 6:1-6; Col. 3:3).
Day 27: Prayer for Maturity.
Pray for the saints to grow in life unto maturity so that “in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly and bountifully supplied” to them (2 Pet. 1:5-11).
Day 28: Prayer to be Saved from Loving the Present Age.
Pray for all the saints, especially the young ones and new ones, to not love the present age but to be saved from “this crooked generation” and “be children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom [they] shine as luminaries in the world” (2 Tim. 4:10; Acts 2:40; Phil. 2:15).
Day 29: Prayer for the Preparation of the Bride.
Pray for the saints to be watchful and prudent and to experience all that is needed to be “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” and to be “called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb” (Matt. 24:40-47; Rev. 21:2; 19:7-9).
Day 30: Prayer for a New Revival.
Pray for the Lord’s recovery to experience a new revival, a revival that has never occurred in history, which will be the issue of our successful practice of the high peak revelations of God’s economy, including the God-man living, the universal shepherding, and the blending for the reality of the Body of Christ and of the one new man (1 Tim. 1:3-4; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a; John 21:15-17; 1 Cor. 12:24; Col. 3:10-11).
Yes, kailangan mabongkag, matunaw ang maong kaaway, pinaagi sa mga pag ampo ug pagtuo sa Dios, nga mahimo niya ang tanan. amen