Much and Thorough Prayer to be infused with God’s instruction to Care for the Church

In order for us to know how to care for the saints according to God and how to pray for them, we need to be under the Lord’s shining through much and thorough prayer so that we can see what our situation and their situation is, even as the high priest had the Lord’s shining in the Old Testament through the Urim and the Thummim. Amen!

As believers in Christ, we need to maintain our prayer life with the Lord, and we need to fight for our prayer life. Many things in us and outside of us rise up against our prayer life.

It is when we have our set time of prayer that someone gives us a call or requires our attention, or there is someone who says or does something to upset us.

Many times we want to pray, but we just had an argument with our spouse or we were upset with a situation or a particular person.

Our emotions are not kept in check; they run wild, being very much influenced and determined by outward factors and inward feelings.

May we be those who exercise their spirit so that the Spirit in our spirit would rule over our entire inner being.

May we allow the Lord to rule and reign over us so that He may keep our emotions in check and renew our mind.

Oh Lord, our mind, emotion, and will!

How much we need to be before the Lord and allow Him to grow in us, spread in us, and rule and reign in our inner being!

Wrath and reasoning kill our prayer; when our emotion is stirred up and we’re upset or angry, and when our mind is disputatious and reasoning, we cannot pray.

Before we can pray, before we can contact the Lord to fellowship with Him with an unveiled face, we need to deal with our heart, with all the inward parts of our being.

For us to have a proper prayer life for the church life, our emotion and our mind need to be regulated to be under the control of the Spirit in our spirit.

Our emotion with its feelings and sentiments need to be kept in check by the Spirit with our spirit. Our mind with its reasonings and disputes needs to be renewed and subdued by the Spirit in our spirit.

We need to exercise our spirit all the time to be one with the Lord so that our inner being would be kept under the rule of our spirit, our mingled spirit.

When the Lord has a way to rule and reign in our inner being, our mind is renewed, our emotions are kept in check and balanced, and our will is subdued, being one with the Lord’s will.

Then, we can have a proper prayer life, and our prayer life issues in the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Having Much and Thorough Prayer to be infused with God’s instruction to Care for the Church

We all realize our need for more prayer; however, many times when we come to the Lord in prayer and we want to pray for the saints, we don’t know what to pray for them.

We usually end up praying for the saints’ health, their going on with the Lord, their family, their job, etc, but we are not clear what their need is before the Lord.

We need to have much and thorough prayer to be infused with God’s instruction to care for the church.

In order for us to be infused with the instruction of God on how to care for the church and how to pray for the saints, we need to spend much time with the Lord in prayer.

The elders especially need to be before the Lord in much and thorough prayer so that they can enter into the reality of “reading the saints”, just as the high priest in the Old Testament read the stones on the breastplate with the Urim and the Thummim in the presence of God (Exo. 28:29-30).

Many times when we think of prayer, we think of praying for our needs and for the needs of the saints.

But in this picture in the Old Testament with the breastplate of judgment which was on the breast of the high priest, we see that God is the One who shines on the situation and conveys to us what we should pray for.

In order for us to know what to pray for, we need to have the Lord’s shining; for this, we need much and thorough prayer.

For us to know how to care for the saints and what their situation is so that we may minister to them, we need to have the Lord’s shining and specific leading.

In the Old Testament, the high priest went into the presence of God wearing a special priestly robe, a priestly garment which was glorious and beautiful.

On the garment, he had the ephod, borne on his shoulders, and there were two onyx stones inscribed with the names of the children of Israel.

Even more, he had a breastplate with twelve stones, engraved with the names of the tribes of Israel.

The twelve names on the breastplate included eighteen of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet; the remaining four letters were put on a piece called the Thummim.

Thummim in Hebrew means “perfecters” or “completers” for the Thummimg was completing the breastplate.

Just as the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet on the keys of the computer keyboard can be used to compose words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, so the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet on the breastplate and the Thummim could be used to spell out words and sentences, thus conveying to the people of God what God wanted to tell them.

The Urim was an illuminator inserted into the breastplate underneath the twelve stones; in Hebrew, Urim means “lights.”

The Urim contained oil for burning and had fire in it, which was from the altar.

Urim had twelve illuminators, one to illuminate each piece of stone on the breastplate; the transparent stones, then, shone with light or were dark, depending on the shining.

When the Urim and the Thummim were added to the breastplate of the high priest, they caused it to become the breastplate of judgment; through it, the Lord could speak to His people by means of the shining and darkening of the stones.

When Joshua needed guidance concerning the move of the people, he had to go to the high priest to receive God’s guidance by means of the Urim and the Thummim.

Today we need to have God’s leading and guidance by means of His speaking; He is speaking to us through Christ and the church, and we have His leading by His shining.

We should not be presumptuous thinking that we know what to pray for, we know what to do, and we know where to go and what to do for the Lord.

Rather, we need to come before the Lord again and again through much and thorough prayer to be infused with the instruction of God to care for the church and for the saints.

The Lord put us together with some saints, and they are the possessions that Christ has delivered us for us to care for, shepherd, and be built up with.

May we come to the Lord and be in His light through much and thorough prayer so that we can enter into the reality of “reading the saints” just as the high priest in the Old Testament read the stones on the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim in the presence of God.

Lord Jesus, we open to You. Infuse us with Your instruction how to care for the saints and for the new ones. We do not presume we know; we come to You to receive Your shining. Shine on us, dear Lord, and infuse us with Your feelings and instructions on how to care for the church and for the saints. May we have much and thorough prayer so that we can enter into Your presence and have Your specific shining for us to see what is our situation, what is the condition of the saints, and how to care for them. Oh Lord, we want to first of all pray and fellowship with You so that You may infuse us with what You are and what You see. May we see the saints the way You see them. May we see their situation the way You see it. May we care for the saints the way You care for them. Make us Your duplication in every possible way. Keep us in a spirit and atmosphere and prayer, having much and thorough prayer, so that we may see the needs of the saints and how to pray for them and minister to them!

God Speaks to us Through Christ and the Church, with Christ as the Completer

What does the breastplate of judgment typify? What does it have to do with us in the New Testament?

How can we apply the type of the breastplate of judgment by means of which God spoke to His people – to us, believers in Christ today, and to the church?

Both the Urim and the Thummim typify Christ, and the breastplate typifies the church; the Urim and the Thummim added to the breastplate typify Christ added to the church.

God today speaks to us through Christ and the church. Urim means lights, illuminators; Christ is the light of the world, the real illuminator.

The urim typifies Christ as lights, illuminators (John 8:12; Luke 1:78-79), shining through the Spirit (the reality of the oil) and the cross (the fire from the altar).

Christ today shines on us through the Spirit and the cross.

As we come to the Lord in His word and come to the meetings of the church, the Lord has a way to shine on us and in us, enlightening us and causing us to see our real situation.

It is through the Spirit and the cross that Christ shines upon us.

In the Old Testament, before the establishment of the priesthood and the tabernacle, before the children of God became a nation, from the time of Abraham and then Isaac and Jacob, God spoke to His people personally and individually.

Sometimes He spoke to them through dreams or through meeting them face to face.

But when the nation of Israel was established and God had a tabernacle with a priesthood, He spoke to them through the breastplate with the ephod.

Today God speaks to us through Christ and the church; as we remain before the Lord in much and thorough prayer, He has a way to speak to us.

The twelve precious stones in the breastplate typify the believers in Christ, the components of the church.

Each and every believer in Christ is a precious stone inscribed with Christ as the letters of the spiritual alphabet (2 Cor. 3:3).

And according to the book of Revelation, Christ is the Alpha and the Omega (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13).

He is the first and the last letter of the alphabet, and He is all the letters in between.

Christ is all the letters of the spiritual alphabet used to compose words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and books.

We all are inscribed with Christ as the spiritual letters, and we become letters of Christ, read and known by all men.

We all can testify that we were going through some situations and were upset with certain things, not understanding why this or that was happening and why the Lord did this or that in us or to us, and then we came to the meeting of the church, and it was there that the Lord shined on us to show us the real situation.

This is like the psalmist in Psa. 73:17-20, who was perplexed with the situation he was in and could not understand why the evil prospered while he was being persecuted and suffering until he entered the sanctuary of God.

When we come to the Lord in our spirit and come to the meetings of the church, we have the Lord’s speaking and enlightening.

The Thummim was a completer, a perfecter of the letters on the breastplate.

This indicates that, no matter how much Christ has been inscribed on us and on the saints, we are still not complete; we are still more of Christ.

We need more of Christ, who is the completing One.

The believers of Christ are inscribed with Christ, but they still need more of Christ; there needs to be more of Christ added to the church, the breastplate.

The leading ones often realize, through much and thorough prayer, that the saints in their locality experience so much of Christ, yet they need more of Christ, for there’s still something of Christ that is missing.

We all need to realize that, no matter how much we have experienced of Christ and how much He was inscribed on us, we are still in darkness if we depend on ourselves, and we still need Him as the Illuminator and the Perfecter, the completer.

We must open to Him in much and thorough prayer so that He as the Spirit would lead us and guide us.

We must live in the mingled spirit so that we may be led by the Spirit in our daily living (Rom. 8:4).

We can have God’s leading by praying and contacting Him, by setting our mind on our spirit, and by living in the mingled spirit.

Lord Jesus, we need more of You! Thank You for coming into us to regenerate us and inscribe us with Yourself to make us letters of Christ. Hallelujah, all believers in Christ are letters of Christ, inscribed with the Spirit of the living God to be read and known by all men. Amen, Lord, we come to You and to the meetings of the church to receive Your shining, Your enlightening, and Your guidance. We do not rely on ourselves; we do not depend on what we know, what we have, and what we experience. We come to You again and again, dear Lord, to just contact You, be infused with You, and receive Your shining and guiding. We want to have much and thorough prayer so that we may be in spirit, live in spirit, and do all things in the mingled spirit. Oh Lord, lead us and guide us by Your Spirit in our spirit. Lead us and guide us by Your shining through the saints, the precious stones inscribed with Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 123, 126-129 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 4, entitled, A Proper Prayer Life for a Proper Church Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – What Is the Real Significance of Prayer? Article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Going to the Lord in prayer for His enlightenment, a portion from, The Life and Way for the Practice of the Church Life, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – The Way to Fulfill the Priestly Duty in the New Testament, article via, Living to Him.
  – The experience of reading the breastplate in the presence of God, a portion from, Elders’ Training, Book 09: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (1), Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – Prayer—Our Spiritual Breathing, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The word of righteousness – gold, silver, and precious stones, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Not our self-appointed task / Will the Lord’s approval win, / But the work we did not ask, / Finished humbly, just for Him. / Not the prayer we long to plead / When we bend before the Throne, / But the touching deeper need / Of the Spirit’s wordless groan. (Hymns #907 stanzas 2-3)
  – Pray with one accord in spirit, / Supplicate relatedly; / Seek the Lord, His mind, His leading, / In the Spirit’s harmony. / Pray with one accord in spirit, / Pray and watch persistently; / For God’s kingdom and His glory, / Pray and watch in harmony. (Hymns #779 stanzas 4-5)
  – O Lord, Thou art the Alpha / And the Omega too; / Thou art the First, before all, / And art the Last so true. / Thou art the sole Beginning, / The only End of all; / In Thee all is included, / Creations great and small. (Hymns #202 stanza 1)