Learn to Pray the Prayer of Authority by Standing in Ascension in Oneness with the Lord

We need to learn to pray the most spiritual and crucial prayer, the prayer of authority, the commanding prayer, the prayer of binding and loosing on earth what has been bound and loosed in heaven.

Yes, on the one hand, we need to pray for our needs and even pray for God’s need, praying with God as our faith and being in the mingling of God and man as we pray for what is in His heart.

However, on the other hand, praying with God as our faith involves losing on earth what has been loosed in the heavens and binding on earth what has been bound in heaven.

Praying for the fulfilment of God’s economy in the organic union with the Lord is not only on the positive side; it also has the side of spiritual warfare, where we fight the spiritual warfare one with the Lord.

May the Lord have mercy on us and uplift our prayer life; may we learn to cooperate with the Lord to no longer pray prayers that we usually pray, nor pray merely for ourselves, the ones around us, and the situations we’re involved in, but pray for what is in God’s heart.

We need to learn to pray ourselves into God, that is, pray out of ourselves and into our mingled spirit, where God is, so that we may be fully one with God.

Prayer is vast and multi-faceted; one of the many aspects of prayer, an aspect that we still are learning and practicing in our daily life and church life, is praying with God as our faith for what is in God’s heart.

We may be quite happy to pour out our hearts before the Lord and ask in prayer concerning our needs and the situations around us, but do we open to the Lord to be mingled with Him to the extent that His desire becomes our desire?

If we open to Him in prayer and allow Him to infuse us with Himself, we will care for what is in His heart, and we will simply pray for the fulfilment of His economy and the accomplishing of His will on earth.

Such a prayer is not in and of ourselves; it is by faith in God, even with God as our faith.

And when we pray in this way, when we pray with God as our faith and our prayer is for the fulfilment of His economy, we know and have the assurance that we have received what we prayed for. Hallelujah!

How can we have such assurance? It is because we ask according to His will, and God will carry out His will.

God is looking for people who would sympathize with Him and be one with Him for the carrying out of His purpose, and when we pray with God as our faith, we become such ones.

Learn to Pray the Prayer of Authority one with God to Bind and Lose on Earth what He has Bound and Loosed in Heaven

In Matt. 18:18 we see a very particular kind of prayer: the prayer of authority; here we are told that we can bind on earth what has been bound in heaven, and we can lose on earth what has been loosed in heaven.

The most lofty and spiritual prayer is the prayer of authority, which is a commanding prayer.

Such prayer is not us asking God to bind and loose, nor is it us begging God to do this or that; it is us being one with God to bind and loose.

The prayer of authority is a sign of authority and a declaration of authority.

If we want to be men of prayer like the Lord Jesus, the first God-man and our pattern, we need to learn to pray with authority.

To pray with authority is to pray binding prayers and losing prayers, that is, to initiate the binding and the loosing on earth according to what has been bound and loosed in heaven.

In Matt. 18:18 it seems that it is not heaven or God who initiates the prayer, the binding, and the loosing, but it is the earth, man, who binds and looses, and heaven is in agreement with this.

The Lord Jesus said to the church people that, whatsoever they bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever we lose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

This doesn’t mean that we can just bind and lose whatever we want on earth, and God will do it.

Rather, we need to first be the proper kind of person, the person who is right in God’s economy, the person who is mingled with God and is in the position of ascension, one with God.

When we are such ones, our prayer will not be about a certain problem or obstacle; our prayer will be for God’s will to be done, and whatever stands against the fulfilment of God’s will, will be bound, and whatever is for God’s will, will be loosed.

The Lord didn’t say that we need to pray to bind and lose; He simply said, whatever you bind…whatever you lose.

The prayer of authority is not asking God to bind and loose, nor is it to pray to bind and loose; it is simply to bind and loose, knowing that we are one with the Lord and we do this according to Him.

The prayer of authority is the binding and loosing by the church on earth of what God has already bound and loosed in the heaven.

As the world situation is going worse and worse, and as we see the signs of the consummation of the age and of the Lord’s second coming, we need to realize that the Lord’s economy must be fulfilled in our age.

His purpose must be worked out; we as the church must cooperate with Him to fulfil His economy.

As those who aspire to cooperate with the Lord, as those who want to be the overcoming members of His Body, we need to learn to pray the prayer of authority to bind and loose in oneness with the Lord.

We need to pray this kind of binding and loosing prayers, prayers of fighting and wrestling, so that we may stand and withstand the enemy and bring down the kingdom of God.

Our wrestling is not against blood and flesh; we don’t fight against people, and nor do we wrestle with man.

Our wrestling is spiritual and is against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:12).

We can no more be indifferent to what is happening today, and we can’t just “cruise” in the church life, living a Christian life in a routine manner.

We live in extraordinary days, and we are in special times. All the things happening around us point to the end of the age.

We as the church have the commission and responsibility to pray the prayer of authority, pray prayers that bind and lose to open the way for the kingdom of God to come in.

We need to be those who stand one with the Lord and with one another to utter the prayers that bind the enemy with his principalities and powers and lose the economy of God and the gospel to be preached.

This doesn’t mean that we need to be presumptuous or bold in ourselves to pray daring prayers; rather, we need to stand one with the Lord and pray on earth what He is praying in heaven, learning to pray the prayer of authority to bind and loose.

Lord Jesus, we stand one with You on earth to pray the prayer of authority for Your kingdom to come and Your will to be done. Amen, Lord, we put ourselves and our interests aside, and we deny the self and put the flesh to death by the Spirit. Here we are, Lord, one with You. We want to be the people on earth who pray the prayer of authority needed for Your kingdom to come and for Your will to be done. Make us those who bind and loose on earth what has been bound and loosed in heaven. We do not agree with the present situation in the church and in the world; we agree with the coming of Your kingdom and the furtherance of Your move. Amen, Lord, may this gospel of the kingdom be preached to the whole inhabited earth. May the enemy and his power be bound and may all his evil tactics of wearing out the saints be exposed and destroyed. Lord, may Your kingdom come and may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

Standing in Ascension to Pray Prayers of Authority, Commanding Prayers, in oneness with the Lord

How can we, human beings, pray prayers of authority? Can man command God what to do? Can a man tell God what to do and where to work?

This seems to be quite daring and presumptuous if taken out of the context.

We need to realize that, through His death, Christ dealt with the old man, Adam, and with the old creation; through His death, He terminated everything of the old man and the old creation.

Furthermore, in His resurrection, Christ brought in the new creation with Himself as the Head and life, and we all were regenerated to be part of His new creation. Hallelujah!

Even more, in His ascension Christ secured a new position; Eph. 1:20-22 says that God caused Christ to sit at His right hand far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

In His ascension, Christ was brought into the heavelies and was sat down by God, and God subjected all things under His feet.

We know that in the air there are the evil principalities and powers who cause so much trouble on earth and do their best to hinder God’s plan.

But praise the Lord, when Christ ascended to the heavenlies, He opened a way from the earth to the heavenlies.

Christ as a man transcended far above all rule and authority and power and lordship, and all things are under His feet.

God put Satan with all his authorities and minions under the feet of Christ, and Christ is above all.

And we are in Christ, even one with Him, for He is our Head and we are His Body.

He has won the victory; we simply stand in His victory, we declare His victory, and, having done all, we stand (Eph. 6:13).

When we see that there is a spiritual warfare going on and we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, we will not beg the Lord to save us or do this or that for us; we will stand in ascension one with Him to pray commanding prayers, prayers of authority, for His will to be done.

Ordinary prayers are directed from earth to heaven; extraordinary prayers, the prayers of authority, are commanding prayers from the heaven down to the earth.

In Isa. 45:11 God said that, concerning the work of His hands, concerning His people, we should command Him.

He wants man to be joined to God to such an extent that man commands God what to do, for man’s command is actually the expression of God’s will and desire.

The prayer of authority is a command based on authority; all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Lord (Matt. 28:17-19), and we are joined to Him as the Head over all things.

Satan may have power, and the powers and principalities in the airs have a certain amount of power – we don’t deny that, and we don’t want to argue with that.

However, we have authority, and God’s authority is higher than Satan’s power.

We are now seated with Christ in the heavenlies, in ascension, and we can pray prayers of authority, commanding prayers.

We are here, on the throne with Christ, praying with authority. All the local churches need to come to this level of prayer; we need to pray prayers of authority one with the Lord to release His will and bring in His kingdom on earth.

If we wish to have weighty and valuable prayers before God, we need to be able to give out some authoritative commands before God.

Of course, we don’t pray in such a way in ourselves according to our zeal or idea; we pray this one with the Lord.

We are not like Balaam who really wanted the money of the king so he tried to curse Israel in himself; we want to be the right kind of persons who are channels of God’s will.

We want to be according to God, one with God, learning to pray the prayer of authority to execute God’s economy and carry out His will.

We realize that we are in ascension, one with the Lord on the throne, and we pray weighty prayers, prayers of authority, prayers that command God what to do, for such prayers are for the fulfilling of God’s economy and the carrying out of His will.

This is what the Lord wants to gain, and the overcomers pray such prayers.

The overcomers are not “elite forces” or “special Christians”; they are those who realize that God has a need, there is a spiritual warfare, and they join themselves to God and stand in the position of ascension to pray prayers of authority one with God.

Through such ones, the Lord will have a way to end this age and bring in the kingdom, and through such ones, He will defeat the enemy, for they say Amen to the Word of God, and the enemy is destroyed and put to shame!

May we be those who are pure in heart and right with the Lord and those around us to learn to pray prayers of authority, commanding prayers, for the Lord to do what He wants to do on earth.

Lord Jesus, we want to have weighty and valuable prayers before You. May we be the right persons, those pure in heart who are one with You, to utter prayers of authority before You and before the enemy. We stand one with You, Lord, in Your ascension; we pray in oneness with You to bind on earth what has been bound in heaven and lose on earth what has been loosed in heaven. Amen, Lord Jesus, we do not agree with the things that Satan does to frustrate Your economy. We don’t agree with his wearing-out tactics in the saints’ lives. We don’t agree with Satan’s work to destroy man and ruin humanity. We bind him and we lose the economy of God in our life and in the life of the saints. We lose the gospel of the kingdom to be preached for a testimony. Amen, Lord, Your will be done! Your kingdom come!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 22, “The Prayer Ministry of the Church,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 3, entitled, Praying with God as our Faith.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Pray to touch the throne of God / By the hand of living faith; / Exercise authority / Over all the pow’r of death. / Pray to touch the throne of God, / Pray to shake the evil pow’r; / Pray with kingship on the throne, / Pray with Christ this very hour. (Hymns #783)
  – Teach us to pray and use Thy rod / In strong, prevailing prayer, / Beneath Thy blood to shake the earth / And powers of the air. / By prayer and faith, O may we learn / To labor, Lord, with Thee, / To know the victory is ours / And Thine authority. (Hymns #767)
  – To Satan it does not give ground, / Nor to the world, or self, or sin, / But seeks beneath the heaven’s rule / God’s full authority to win. / ’Tis such a life which subjugates / All things with pow’r to God’s behest; / The time it hastens when the Lord / Will here His kingdom manifest. (Hymns #944)