In our contact with the Lord in prayer, we need to learn not to direct Him but ask “what shall I do, Lord?”, we need to let Him point out our needs and problems and just confess these to drink the living water, and we need to seek the Lord Himself as the unseen spiritual matters and not mere physical matters.
We all need to learn how to pray; we need to learn not only to set aside times of prayer during the day but even more, we need to learn how to pray in our contact with the Lord.
The Lord is a living person, and when He came into us, He as a living person entered our spirit.
Our entire Christian life is a quest to know Him, to experience Him, and to enjoy Him; in our contact with the Lord, we are learning to seek His face, inquire in His presence, behold His beauty, and absorb Him.
By spending time with the Lord we realize how full of ourselves we are, how absorbed we are with our own situation and condition, and how little we care for God’s interest, for the church, and for sinners.
But we are learning, and this is a lifelong learning process, to contact the Lord, abide in Him, and let His words abide in us.
We are learning that He as a living person dwells in us and He wants us to dwell in Him, to abide in Him.
If we abide in Him, He abides in us; if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we will, and it will be done for us.
Throughout the day we need to learn to remain in fellowship with the Lord; there are many things we need to do during the day, and many situations come about to distract us from the Lord.
We simply need to keep turning to Him, contacting Him as the living One in this and that situation, and consult Him concerning this and that. And we need to take His word and pray it, muse over it, and make it our daily food.
As we allow the Lord’s word to dwell richly in us, we are inwardly supplied, we have His inner speaking, and we can ask according to His will.
Whatever we ask of the Lord as we abide in Him and let His word abide in us, He will do for us, for such an asking in the abiding is what He is actually asking.
This is the way for us to be one with the Lord in our prayer – by abiding in the Lord and letting His word abide in us. In this blog post, we want to see some of the principles that we need to learn in our contact with the Lord.
There are certain secrets, certain principles, that we need to keep in order that we may have an effective prayer, and these principles can be seen in the New Testament, in particular in the book of John.
It is very important for us to contact the Lord and fellowship with Him; there are many cases in the Gospel of John that show us how we should contact the Lord in a proper way.
In our Contact with the Lord we should Not Direct Him what to do Inquire of Him, What shall I do, Lord?
The first principle in our contact with the Lord is that we shouldn’t try to “direct the Lord” what to do, asking Him to do this or that; rather, we should have Paul’s attitude by asking, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10).
In John 2 we see the case of changing the water into wine; when the wine finished at the wedding in Cana, the mother of Jesus asked the Lord to do something about it.
His answer is actually the answer He gives to all those who try to tell Him what to do according to their concept, “What do I have in this that concerns you?” (John 2:4).
This doesn’t mean that the Lord doesn’t want us to contact Him or that He doesn’t care for our situation; this doesn’t mean that He doesn’t want to bear any responsibility for our situation or the things that relate to us.
Rather, the Lord entered into us to take care of us, bear us, fill us, live in us, and be one with us; He wants to be contacted by us and be responsible for our affairs.
However, His timing is not our timing, and He doesn’t need to be “pushed” or “directed” to do this or that; we simply need to contact Him and ask Him, Lord, what shall I do?
In our contact with the Lord we shouldn’t direct Him what to do but simply ask Him to tell us what does He want us to do.
Saul, before he became Paul, though he knew what God wants him to do, so he was very zealous for the law and tried to wipe out those who followed Jesus; however, the Lord Jesus met him, and he realized he was working against God Himself.
Paul asked the Lord two questions, “Who are You, Lord?” and “What shall I do, Lord?” – these are the questions we need to ask the Lord in our fellowship with Him.
First, we want to know who He is, what He is, and then we want to know what does He want us to do.
Too many times, however, we think we know the Lord so we don’t spend time to absorb Him in our fellowship with Him; as a result, we think we know what He wants to do, so we “direct the Lord” to do this and that, without asking Him what does He want us to do.
May the Lord save us from trying to tell Him what to do without first asking what does He want us to do; may He save us from trying to direct the Lord without first being one with Him and knowing what is in His heart.
We first need to be God’s friend, knowing Him and His heart, and then we can be His co-worker, working together with Him according to what we see is in His heart.
We cannot be presumptuous to think that we know what He wants to do; rather, we want to spend time to absorb Him, be filled with Him, abide in Him, and let His words abide in us, and then we can pray one with Him, even having the attitude that we are listening to Him to direct us – instead of us directing Him.
May we not find ourselves in that day that the Lord tells us that He never knew us, for we did so many things for Him and in His name but without Him directing us what to do but rather, we try to direct Him what to do. May we contact the Lord and tell Him in all honesty,
Lord Jesus, we want to contact You and enjoy You; we open our being to absorb You and be filled with You. We want to learn not to tell You what to do according to what we think You should do but rather, inquire of You to tell us what You want us to do. Lord, what is in Your heart concerning us? What would You like us to do? What would You have us do? We open to You, Lord, and we put our opinions and feelings aside; we simply want to be one with You in our prayer. Do in us what You want to do. We want to cooperate with You and be willing to do what You want us to do.
In our Contact with the Lord, we see our Needs and Problems, and we Drink the Living Water when we Confess our Sins
We can testify from our experience that, when we draw near to the Lord and contact Him, He causes us to see our needs and points out our problems, stains, and sins (John 4:15-18).
We may open our mouth and ask Him to do this or that, or thank Him for this and that, but He is faithful to shine on our situation and expose our problems, sins, and shortcomings.
We may think we need to pray for the missionary work, the Lord’s move here or there, or for the upcoming conference; as we start to pray, the Lord shines to show us our real situation, and we react simply by confessing.
When we come to the Lord, very often He shines on us inwardly, and we realize how sinful and short we are; on the other hand, He shows us how wonderful and rich He is.
So we simply confess our sins and shortcomings, our stains and our failures, and He gives us to drink of Himself as the living water.
This is what happened in John 4, where the Samaritan woman asked the Lord to give her to drink of this “living water” that He was talking about.
The Lord’s reply was to expose her situation, to touch her conscience, and He even confessed her sins for her.
He wanted to give her living water to drink, but she couldn’t drink because there were unconfessed sins; so the Lord shined on her situation with her husband (who was not her husband, and she had five husbands already), and He conversed with her concerning the Father needing to have those who worship in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:15-16; 24).
She didn’t run from Him when He exposed her situation; rather, she tried to change the topic and started talking about matters related to religion.
However, the result was that she left her waterpot and went into the city and told everyone, Come and see a man who told me everything I did! Wow.
The Lord confessed her sins for her, and she drank the living water; the result was that she spoke to everyone concerning Him, and she brought many to hear Him speak.
We should not shy away from the Lord or be afraid of Him exposing our sins, for He does this to remove any barrier so that we can drink the living water.
We may think we need this or that, but when we come to contact God, He exposes our real situation, and we can only but confess – we agree with what He shines on.
Even if we don’t confess, the fact that He exposes something in us causes us to realize our problems, our faults, our stains, and our sins.
The way for us to take the living water is to confess these sins to the Lord (John 4:15-18).
If we agree with the Lord’s shining and confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), and we drink of Him as the living water.
Our confessing our sins and trespasses removes the barrier for the Lord to flow in us, and we drink freely of the living water.
Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life!
Lord Jesus, we come to You as we are, and we just open our whole being to Your shining. Grant us not to shy away from You or from Your shining; have a way to expose what is in us and bring to light anything that is not according to You. Amen, Lord, we confess the sins, problems, faults, and stains that are exposed under Your shining. Give us to drink the living water. Fill us with Yourself as the living water and overflow through us. Amen, Lord, we wash our robes and we come forward to eat the tree of life and drink the water of life!
When we Contact the Lord, we should Seek Him as the Unseen Spiritual Matters, not merely the Seen Physical Matters
In John 6 we see a principle for our prayer in our contact with the Lord: we should not merely seek to ask for physical, material things, but seek the Lord Himself as the unseen spiritual matters (John 6:27, 31-33; 2 Cor. 4:18; Heb. 11:27).
Many times when we come to the Lord in our personal time with Him, we pray for the situation we’re in, those around us and their situation, and for the physical things we need.
Many brothers spend time praying for physical things, and many sisters pray for the physical affairs of their spouse and children.
We do need to bring all things to the Lord in prayer, and we do need to mention everything before Him in our time with Him.
However, we need to realize that, when we draw near to Him, we should seek the Lord Himself as the unseen spiritual matters, and not merely ask concerning or for seen physical matters.
Our situation is that many times we ask concerning these physical things, the seen things, and we do not have much to say when it comes to seeking the Lord Himself.
In John 6 we see that there was a great crowd that contacted the Lord and followed Him, and He performed a miracle in order to feed them.
When the crowd returned the next day to be filled, the Lord said, Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life (John 6:27).
The Lord doesn’t want us to seek or put our hope in physical things when we contact Him in prayer; rather, He wants us to seek Him and know Him, even take Him as the reality of all that we need.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ask Him concerning the things we need; rather, we need to bring all our needs to Him, for it matters to Him concerning us.
But the Lord doesn’t want us to always mention the physical things when we contact Him; He already knows what we need, He knows our situation, and He knows about all these things.
He just wants some people who transcend these physical things, the material needs, and the outward situations, and just contact Him to know Him and gain Him.
He wants some who would seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33), and He will take care of all other things.
If we focus on the Lord as the unseen, spiritual matters, He will add the physical and material things to us as He sees it fit that we need them.
May we not come to the Lord “to be filled” with the material things we need; may we come to Him to contact Him, enjoy Him, and know Him in spirit.
This is something we all need to advance in both personally and corporately; our prayer needs to advance to a different stage, until we contact the Lord to solely focus on Him and enjoy Him, trusting in Him that all other things will be added to us.
Lord Jesus, we draw near to You and contact You to seek only You, trusting in You that all other things will be added to us. Amen, Lord, we seek Your kingdom and righteousness first, believing that all our needs will be met by You. We open to You, dear Lord, and we cast all our cares and anxieties upon You. It matters to You concerning us, and we trust in You concerning all these things. May we all advance in our contacting the Lord in prayer until we focus solely on Christ as the unseen spiritual matters to gain Him, be filled with His riches and be one with Him in our prayer.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by Mark Raabe and Ricky Acosta on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1956, vol. 3, “The Meaning and Purpose of Prayer,” pp. 251-256, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 4, entitled, Prayer to Absorb God and to Express God by Praying to God as a Friend So That We Can Co-work with God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / List’ning earnestly to Him; / Be impressed with His intentions, / Yielding to Him from within. (Hymns #784)
– I would inhale Thee, Lord, e’en as I breathe, / And eat and drink Thee as my life supply. / A deeper fellowship with Thee bequeath / That Thou express Thyself through me thereby. / Here in this fellowship Thy light doth shine, / Thy precious blood doth cleanse and make me clean; / May I not only, Lord, Thy light enshrine, / But may Thou be expressed and clearly seen. (Hymns #764)
– Seek ye first, not earthly pleasure, / Fading joy and failing treasure, / But the love that knows no measure / Seek ye first. / Seek ye first, not earth’s aspirings, / Ceaseless longings, vain desirings, / But your precious soul’s requirings / Seek ye first. (Hymns #667)
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