![Exercising to Pray Unceasingly by Calling on the Lord and Talking to Him [In the picture: Eph. 6:18]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/eph6-18-prayer-petition-praying-all-time-in-spirit.jpg?resize=750%2C498&ssl=1 "Exercising to Pray Unceasingly by Calling on the Lord and Talking to Him [In the picture: Eph. 6:18]")
The Lord Jesus tells us in Matt. 26:41, Watch and pray – the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Paul continues the Lord’s speaking on this matter and strengthens it by saying, Praying at every time in spirit, and, Persevering in prayer (Col. 4:2; Eph. 6:18).
For us to watch in prayer implies that we need to let our spirit rise up over our body and our psychology – we need to exercise our spirit and have a strong spirit to pray.
We need to build up a habit of prayer by exercising our spirit to call on the Lord and talk to Him about everything and at all times.
As we talk to the Lord, as we breathe our sins and problems out and breathe Him in, we will discover that it is by this breathing in and out of Christ that we live spiritually!
We live Christ by our continual and unceasing prayer (1 Thes. 5:17), by our calling on the Lord and talking to Him about everything. The more we pray, we will discover that we have more to pray!
The more we pray, the more we will like to pray, and the more we will be able to pray!
Lord, keep us open to You, always praying in spirit! Keep us breathing You in! We want to be those exercised in their spirit to pray unceasingly. Lord, strengthen our spirit that it would be stronger than the desires of our flesh and soul. We want to breathe You in and breathe ourselves us, that we may build up a habit of prayer!
Exercising to Pray Unceasingly
Even though the divine nature we have received into our spirit by our regeneration is a praying nature, we Christians are not naturally inclined toward prayer.
It is not mainly the outward situations and things that distract us or frustrate us from praying unceasingly, but it is our indulgence in our flesh, our self, and our soul. This is why we need to learn to exercise our spirit and exercise our whole being that we may not be overcome with sleep, stupor, or drunkenness but rather be those who pray!
Our spirit needs to be strong so that it would subdue the desire of our body to sleep, and not allow our soul to have it’s soul-life and desire. The more we exercise our spirit, the more we will be charged with spiritual power.
It is tiring to continually exercise our spirit, since by nature we are inclined NOT to exercise our spirit, but the more we exercise to pray today, the more we can pray tomorrow. If we exercise to pray in the morning, we will have enough strength to pray at noon and then in the evening.
The more we exercise to pray, the more we will have to pray, the more we will like to pray, and the more we will be able to pray.
We need to build up a habit of prayer, a habit of being one spirit with the Lord by watching unto prayer and praying unceasingly. When we see that something within us frustrates us from prayer or makes us reluctant to pray, we need to deal with it and pray even more!
By exercising a little today, a little more tomorrow, and so on, we will be strong in our spirit and we will have a habit of living Christ by praying unceasingly.
Building up a Habit of Living Christ
The goal of our Christian life is simply put by Paul, To be Found in Him, and, For Me to Live is Christ, and, No Longer I But Christ (Phil. 3:9; 1:21; Gal. 2:20). In our Christian life we need to build up the habit of living Christ, which is the habit of prayer.
![The goal of our Christian life is simply put by Paul, To be Found in Him, and, For Me to Live is Christ, and, No Longer I But Christ (Phil. 3:9; 1:21; Gal. 2:20). In our Christian life we need to build up the habit of living Christ, which is the habit of prayer. [In the picture: To live Christ, to practice being one spirit with the Lord, is by our continual and unceasing prayer (1 Thes. 5:17); to have such a prayer life, we all must learn to watch, to be on the alert, to be awake; the habit of living Christ must be the habit of prayer.]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/one-spirit-with-the-lord-habit-of-prayer.jpg?resize=750%2C536&ssl=1 "The goal of our Christian life is simply put by Paul, To be Found in Him, and, For Me to Live is Christ, and, No Longer I But Christ (Phil. 3:9; 1:21; Gal. 2:20). In our Christian life we need to build up the habit of living Christ, which is the habit of prayer. [In the picture: To live Christ, to practice being one spirit with the Lord, is by our continual and unceasing prayer (1 Thes. 5:17); to have such a prayer life, we all must learn to watch, to be on the alert, to be awake; the habit of living Christ must be the habit of prayer.]")
To live Christ, to practice being one spirit with the Lord, is by our continual and unceasing prayer (1 Thes. 5:17); to have such a prayer life, we all must learn to watch, to be on the alert, to be awake; the habit of living Christ must be the habit of prayer.
The more we pray, the more we will hunger and thirst to pray, and the more we will desire to pray. This is a daily matter – wherever the Lord put us, we can practice praying again and again, building up a habit of prayer, and we will live Christ.
Perhaps even while reading this word you are exposed of your failure to pray (as I am also) and of the hunger within you to pray. This means we need to practice to pray. Even though we may fail many times, we still continue to pray.
We may forget about it for one day or two days, but we still continue. We need to practice praying unceasingly so that we may build up a habit of living Christ.
All Day Long Call on the Lord and Talk to Him
![When some hear, Pray Unceasingly, they are puzzled: how can we pray unceasingly? Don't we have to go to work, take care of the human needs, family life, etc? According to the Bible, the way for us to pray unceasingly is simple: we need to call on the Lord and talk to Him all day long. [In the picture: All day long we should call on the Lord and talk to Him; this is to pray unceasingly, which is to breathe and live spiritually, and to live spiritually is just to live Christ]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/call-on-the-lord-talk-to-him-pray-unceasingly.jpg?resize=750%2C469&ssl=1 "When some hear, Pray Unceasingly, they are puzzled: how can we pray unceasingly? Don't we have to go to work, take care of the human needs, family life, etc? According to the Bible, the way for us to pray unceasingly is simple: we need to call on the Lord and talk to Him all day long. [In the picture: All day long we should call on the Lord and talk to Him; this is to pray unceasingly, which is to breathe and live spiritually, and to live spiritually is just to live Christ]")
All day long we should call on the Lord and talk to Him; this is to pray unceasingly, which is to breathe and live spiritually, and to live spiritually is just to live Christ
Jeremiah tells us that it is God’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed – His compassions do not fail, they are new every morning; great is His faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23). Even from the lowest pit, we can call on the Lord’s name, and He hears our voice, our breathing (Lam. 3:55-56).
Call on the Lord’s name, whether audibly or inwardly, and you will build up a habit of prayer! Our calling on the name of the Lord and our talking to Him in everything is our spiritual breathing.
We can breathe out our sorrows, our sins, our weakness, our sickness, our sinful nature, and our whole being, and we breathe in His peace, His joy, His rest, His salvation, His comfort, His healing, and all His fullness.
In this way we have hundreds and thousands of conversations with Him, which constitute our walk with Him, our living Him, and our praying unceasingly.
Lord, teach us how to breathe You in. We want to breathe ourselves us, and receive into us all that You are. Lord, make us watchful concerning our prayer life. Make us those who call on Your name every day and in every place. Lord, we want to exercise our whole being to watch and pray. We petition You concerning our prayer life, Lord, remind us to pray! Make us praying persons!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ed Marks’ sharing in this message, and portions in, Perfecting Training (ch. 15, by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Prayer and the Lord’s Move, week 4 (entitled, Persevering in Prayer).
- Hymns on this topic:
# I am breathing every moment, / Drawing all my life from Thee; / Breath by breath I live upon Thee, / Lord, Thy Spirit breathe in me.
# Breathing in the Lord / Is how we live today. / Not by thinking do we live, / But breathing is the way.
# We are those who call upon His name in every place / With all the saints who from a pure heart call and taste His grace. - Pictures source: with permission via, Inspiration Unlimited (Prayer and the Lord’s Move set).
About aGodMan
To pray unceasingly and how we can pray unceasingly…is this: all the day long you should call on Him; you should talk to Him. By this you are breathing. This is to live spiritually, and to live spiritually is just to live Christ. I do believe this kind of fellowship hits the mark. You have to come back to this point: you must do all things by talking to the Lord, by praying to Him, by calling on Him. This is to breathe that you may live Him. (Perfecting Training, pp. 174-175, 186-187)
We must get into the habit of praying regularly, this comes about by exercising and training ourselves. The only way to pray more is to exercise more. The more we do this the easier it becomes and gradually we begin to build up our prayer life and enrich our Christian life.
EXERCISE YOUR SPIRIT
1 Thes 5:6 So then let us not sleep, as the rest do, but let us watch & be sober.
17 Unceasingly pray.
Rom 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers.
‘The Lord said, “The spirit is willing,”(Mat 26:41), & Paul said, “Praying at every time in spirit: (Eph 6:18)…let our spirit rise up over our body & over our psychology. Then we can pray…You need to exercise. If you’re going to have strength…Two times of prayer strengthens you to pray four times.
Our spirit is like any other part of our body that if we don’t exercise will weaken. Use it or loose it, is the idea. Even if it is just to call upon His name, ‘Oh Lord Jesus’, this is to pray. To walk with our Lord is to talk with Him. Include Him in everything we do. He is not only our Lord & God, but also our friend & brother.
Amen
<3
The more you pray the more you will have to pray.. the more you will like to pray, and the more you will be able to pray!
We have so much in the environment and in our own life to pray for. We have to let our spirit rise up over our body and our psychology. Then we can pray, then we can watch unto prayer in all petition. To live spiritually is just to live Christ. The habit of living Christ must be the habit of prayer. To live Christ, to practice the one spirit with the Lord, is by continual and unceasing prayer: all day long we should call on Him; we should talk to Him. We must do all things by talking to the Lord, praying to Him, and calling on Him. As we breathe Him in, we can live because of Him.
When the Lord said, ‘The spirit is willing’, Paul says Amen, ‘the spirit is willing, then let us PRAY at every time in spirit.’ O, how we need to take the advantage of the willing spirit and pray. We should forget about our flesh and LET OUR SPIRIT RISE over our body and our psychology to PRAY MUCH and not let our body sleep so much.
All saved ones has the ability to pray, yet we still need to learn, to practice, and exercise this gift. If we don’t pray today, we cannot pray tomorrow. Praying in the morning will strengthen us to pray in the evening. The more we pray the more we are able to pray and the more we will enjoy it and the more we will have to pray.
To have such a prayer life, we must learn to WATCH and even be SOBER and on the alert. This way, as soon as we discover the unwillingness within us, we fight against it by praying more.
Besides praying 2 or 3 times a day, we need continual and unceasing prayer by our calling on the Lord, by conversing with Him. “O Lord, help us build up a habit of prayer, even breathing You all day long. Lord, we desire to live Christ daily to express Him. Perfect us in this matter, so we may also coach or perfect others.”
watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak {Matt.26:41} it is truly a revelation this verse in my daily practical living each day, it should be a figther to overcome the flesh, to figth this weak flesh is to awake and be watcful,through prayer calling the name of the Lord, O Lord Jesus, calling Him with in our spirit. in this way we will be awake..
Here is a new song, based on the note above; hope you enjoy:
tune: Pressed Out Of Measure/730
http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/730
We need to build up a habit of prayer–
By exercising our spirit to–
Call on the Lord and talk to Him,
About everything and at all times.
As we talk to the Lord, as we–
Breathe our sins and problems out…
And breathe Him in, we will discover that it–
Is by this breathing in and out of Christ–
That we live spiritually! We live Christ by–
Our continual and unceasing prayer,
By our calling on the Lord and–
Talking to Him about everything.
Oh Lord Jesus, we love to call on You and talk to You right through our day. Oh Lord increase the hunger and thirst within our spirit to have thousand's of conversations with You daily, Lord. Cause us to be unceasing in our prayer life, living Christ, breathing Christ, speaking Christ. Lord Jesus, precious Jesus, how we love to call on You Lord!
Maybe we find it hard to pray, maybe because we think God is not receptive, or because we think he is not listening. But we need to realise the prayers for his economy are really taken into account! when we realise this, we would not cease praying!
Why would he not listen to a pray for for that friend in your class? persevere in prayer! sometimes another friend will get saved instead, or it may seem that it takes a while for your prayer to be answered. Either way your pray will not be subjected to vanity. It will still contribute to bringing the Lord back!
We should even pray for the lord to make us such men of prayer. Praying every time in spirit and with thanksgiving. Don't stop praying saints!
Lord make us men of prayer, who will pray our selves into God, that we would not over look pray or neglect it! That prayer through out the recovery could be gained to bring you back and we could learn to rest in prayer, giving all our burden and laying it on you!.
Oh ! Lord Jesus calling Your name,breathing you in our daily life would be save us,breath you Lord take out our sins and weaknesses and have a peace and Joy to you.
We need to talk to the Lord and call on Him daily
Amen. Lord Jesus …
Amen