Going into the Presence of the Lord and Praying until we have His Leading where to go

We can never overstress the importance of being in the presence of the Lord and enquiring of Him concerning His leading in the matter of our participation in the Lord’s ultimate move; we need to go to the Lord and pray to have the Lord’s leading and follow the Spirit where He leads us.

In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we have been brought to know that the Lord wants the gospel of the kingdom to be preached to the whole inhabited earth as a preparation for His return. However, we must not turn this into a movement which people can join without contacting the Lord.

We need to encourage one another to enjoy the Lord, contact Him, and seek His leading in the matter of our participation in the Lord’s ultimate move. We don’t want to insult the Spirit by making decisions by ourselves to go somewhere or do something, without consulting the Lord and waiting for His leading.

Furthermore, we don’t want to take the Lord’s place in others’ lives by telling them where to go for the Lord’s move; rather, what we need to do is help others contact the Lord, give Him the preeminence, and inquire of Him concerning everything.

The Lord treasures our dependence on Him more than anything that we can do for Him, and in the matter of His move toward Europe He doesn’t need spiritual giants who are ready to join a movement but little captives who are defeated by Him and follow Him in His triumphant procession, scattering the fragrance of Christ everywhere they go.

We need to acknowledge that the Lord is the Master and the Head of the Body; He is the Lord of the harvest, and we are not qualified nor do we have the position and authority to make decisions for ourselves where to go or tell others where to go.

May we be those who wait on the Lord, spend time in the presence of the Lord, and seek to know His will and His heart, so that we may be one with Him in His move, following the Lamb wherever He goes.

May we not repeat the tragedy in Christianity where many have made themselves the Lord of the harvest and the masters of the work, removing the Lord as the Head from their experience and living.

Going into the Presence of the Lord and Praying until we have His Leading where to go

We have to admit that, most of the time, we don’t live in the presence of the Lord; it is our aspiration to live one spirit with the Lord, but when it comes to our daily living, we don’t do this yet.

However, when it comes to the Lord’s move and our participation, we all must go into the presence of the Lord and pray for some time, for we are not in some kind of a movement but in the living move of the Lord Jesus as the Spirit; therefore, everything must be brought into the presence of the Lord.

We all must learn this lesson that no one can go to the Lord for someone else; we can’t decide for others, nor can others go to the Lord for us. Even the newest one among us, the newly saved believer, must still go to the Lord Himself.

Going to the Lord for someone else brings in the clergy-laity system in which some, who are the laymen, rely on a special class of people – the clergy – to contact the Lord for them.

The Lord hates the works of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:4-6); He wants us to love Him with the first love and do the first works, and He wants us to hate any system of clergy-laity, for His heart’s desire is that all the members of the Body would contact Him directly and function in their measure.

We shouldn’t go somewhere for the Lord’s interest merely because a brother (even an elder or a co-worker) told us to go; rather, we should go into the presence of the Lord and pray until we have His leading whether to go or stay, and where to go for His move and in His move.

Eventually, we all should be able to say, I am here or I am going to that place because I have inquired of the Lord, and He has led me to stay here or go there.

We need to contact the Lord as the Head of the Body, giving Him the preeminence in our decisions both great and small, and seek His leading in all things, especially when it comes to going somewhere for His move.

Others may have a certain opinion or feeling where we should go, but we need to go into the Lord’s presence, exercise our spirit, and pray for a considerable time.

If we already moved to a place as advised by a brother in the Lord – yet without contacting the Lord about it ourselves – we need to remember that we are there by God’s sovereignty, and we need to trust in the Lord.

However, we should not move anywhere for the Lord’s move until we have contacted the Lord, neither should we tell anyone where to go.

We must have the assurance that the Lord is leading, otherwise we will be a movement of man and there will be no spiritual value in what we do.

Whenever we act on the leading of the Lord as a result of being in the presence of the Lord and praying, we will never regret it; rather, His blessing will follow.

Lord Jesus, we love You. We want to come into Your presence and spend a considerable time with You concerning where we should be for You to use us in Your move. Save us from being in a movement; may we bring everything into the presence of the Lord and learn the lesson of not doing anything and not going anywhere without contacting the Lord first. Lord Jesus, we treasure Your presence, Your smile, and Your leading. We trust in Your sovereignty and we treasure Your leading in our daily life.

Going Directly to the Lord Himself, Praying, and Following the Leading of the Spirit

God’s New Testament economy is a matter of the Spirit, and the Lord’s move is in spirit; we need to go directly to the Lord Himself, pray, and follow the leading of the Spirit.

We see a vivid picture of this matter in Acts 16, where Paul and those with him were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and when they tried to go into Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them (Acts 16:6).

The apostles didn’t just go at all cost when they had an open door in the Lord for the gospel; rather, they followed the leading of the Spirit, and many times this meant that they were stopped by the Spirit from going to certain places.

Then, a vision appeared to Paul during the night, and a certain man, a Macedonian, was standing and entreating him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us (Acts 16:9).

The apostles walked and worked not according to their own decisions but only according to the Lord’s leading. If we work according t our own decision, we exalt ourselves to be the Lord.

Eventually, Paul and Silas were arrested and put in prison, but because they were assured the Lord was leading them, they had the solidification of Christ’s leading in their spirit and nothing could trouble them. In prison, at midnight, while praying, they sang hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

The prisoners were not just hearing their words but they were listening. There was an earthquake, the gates opened, the shackles and stocks fell off their hands and feet, and the jailer wanted to do away with himself, but Paul said, Don’t do it, we are all here. The jailer’s response was, What must I do to be saved? He must have heard their singing and was touched, and the Lord saved him and his whole household! Wow!

Whenever we walk and work according to the Lord’s leading, we are full of joy and enjoyment of the Lord, and we scatter His fragrance wherever we go.

Everyone of us must go directly to the Lord and pray, enquiring of Him as the Lord, Lord, where should I go? We shouldn’t merely say the slogan, I’m following the flow! – for the real flow is the Lord Himself in our spirit, and we need to contact Him directly!

Concerning any move we make in the Lord’s recovery, we must go directly to the Lord Himself and pray; we must have the assurance that the Lord is sending us; none of us should give instructions to others or make decisions for others.

In the Lord’s recovery we don’t want to be a repetition of the pitiful history of Christianity in which people take orders from others and others go where they want to go without contacting the Lord….we need to have a genuine turn before the Lord, go directly to the Lord Himself, contact Him, pray for a considerable time, and follow the Lord’s leading as the Spirit in our spirit, as confirmed by the Body.

Lord Jesus, we don’t want to offend You or insult You; we want to honor You as our Head and as our Lord by waiting on You for Your leading. Save us from making our own decisions without first going to You directly to pray, be in Your presence, and contact You. May we realize that God’s New Testament economy is a matter of the Spirit, and may we allow the Spirit to lead us in everything. Lord, we enquire of You, Where do You want us to go for Your move? Do You want us to stay, or do You want us to go? Keep us in the presence of the Lord, enquiring of Him until we have the Lord’s leading in our spirit!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, The Spirit and the Body, ch. 1, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Special Fellowship concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Move, msg. 5 (week 5), Doing Everything according to the Leading, Working, and Speaking of the Spirit, Honoring the Lord as the Head of the Body for His Unique Move, and Being Balanced by the Body to Be Kept in Its Unique Oneness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, in Thy presence silent I would be, / That in the inmost I to Thee may come; / I would not in my own way pray to Thee, / But let Thy prayer in me my prayer become. (Hymns #764)
  # Not where we elect to go, / But where Jesus leads the way, / There the living waters flow, / There our darkness turns to day. / Not our self-appointed task / Will the Lord’s approval win, / But the work we did not ask, / Finished humbly, just for Him. (Hymns #907)
  # Pray with one accord in spirit, / Supplicate relatedly; / Seek the Lord, His mind, His leading, / In the Spirit’s harmony. (Hymns #779)