According to Luke 11:1-13, the governing principle of our prayer should be that prayer brings us into God. Amen!
If we pray and the result is that we’re not into God, we need to turn to the Lord and pray according to the principle of the Lord’s prayer so that we may get out of ourselves and into God!
This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, The prayer Needed for the Reality and Practicality of the One New Man. We need to have a certain kind of prayer for the one new man to become real and practical in the church life today.
A certain kind of prayer and even a situation of prayer must arise in all the local churches so that the one new man to be practiced and come into being in reality and practicality.
May we exercise our spirit and stand one with the Lord, cooperating with Him to let go and set aside whatever ideas, concepts, or even experiences we had, so that perhaps we can receive from Him something new and deeper, something more advanced concerning the one new man.
For us to be there to be the genuine reality of the new man among us, prayer is needed; this prayer, however, is not any kind of prayer, but a particular kind of prayer for the practicality of the new man to be worked out in the church life.
There must be a certain kind of prayer, even a situation of prayer and a prayer life, that has to be among us, so that the new man may be real and practical.
When this kind of prayer and prayer situation precipitates, the one new man will come into being in a practical way.
Prayer is something so simple that even a little child can do, and out of the lips of babes and children the Lord gains His praise; the prayers of these little ones ascend to God, and He listens to them.
On the other hand, prayer is a very mysterious and mystical activity that we do as a Christian, and the governing principle of our prayer is that prayer brings us into God.
We want to see mainly three things concerning prayer: how to substantiate prayer, what is the condition of prayer we need, and the kind of reflection required for the Lord to have our cooperation.
We want to see how can we substantiate the matter of prayer, this deep and mystical communication between man and God and God an man. There is probably no other communication or flow between God and man that is as high and deep and real as prayer.
Secondly, we want to see the conditions that are required for us to have the proper and genuine prayer; we need to have a certain kind of state or condition of prayer, so that our prayer would not be faint or ineffective but reach God’s goal.
Finally, there are three areas that we have to correspond in prayer and petition, so that Christ would execute His heavenly ministry through our prayer and for the new man to come into existence practically.
The Pattern of the Lord Jesus as a Man of Prayer who had a Prayer Life with the Father
The Lord Jesus lived the life of the new man, and He Himself as the embodiment of the Father was the man that God desires to have, the man that fulfills God’s purpose.
He lived a God-man life, and if we read the Gospels we will be impressed again and again with how much He prayed, how many times He prayed, and what kind of a prayer life He had. The way He lived the God-man life was by being a man of prayer.
When we speak of the prayer for the bringing in of the new man, we need to realise that we need to have a prayer life by taking the Lord as the Praying One in us to be our person.
We need to see the Lord’s pattern as a Man of Prayer who had a prayer life with the Father while He was on earth.
For instance, in Luke 3:21 after the Lord was baptised, while He was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit fell upon Him and anointed Him.
In Matt. 12:14-23 the Lord went up to the mountain and prayed by Himself; He just finished feeding the five thousand, He sent His disciples on the boat across the sea of Galilee, and when it was evening, He was there alone, praying before the Father.
Mark 1:35 tells us that the Lord rose up early in the morning, while it was still dark, and went out and went away to a deserted place, and there He prayed. He was there alone in a deserted place with no distraction, nothing to see or do, nothing to stimulate Him – and He prayed; this is the right place for prayer.
In Luke 5:16 we see that the Lord often withdrew in the wilderness and prayed; this God-man had to withdraw from His busyness, from all the noise and the crowds, and even from the most important activities in His earthly ministry, so that He would just pray. We need to be impressed with how much the Lord as a Man prayed.
In Mark 6:46 we are told that the Lord went away to the mountain to pray, after He said farewell to certain ones.
It seems that before the Lord did something, after He did something, and even while He was doing or saying something, He would just pray; He prayed and prayed and prayed. It’s almost like prayer was the linking element of all that the Savior did; He linked all things by prayer, He filled all the gaps with prayer.
Luke 6:12 says that the Lord went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in the prayer to God; sometimes He woke up in the morning to pray, while at other times He started at night and prayed through the night.
In this case, the next day He had to appoint the twelve apostles, so He spent the whole night in prayer to God, even the prayer of God.
In Luke 9:18 the Lord was praying alone, and His disciples were with Him; then He asked them, Who do people say that I am? and He revealed who He really is and how He builds up the church. He did so many things by first praying and then praying again.
We may think that He was God, He was the Christ, and He didn’t need to pray, but He still prayed, for He was a man.
In Matt. 26:36 the Lord was in the garden of Gethsemane, and there He prayed at least three times; Paul also prayed three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed, and the Lord prayed that He might be saved from the death of the cross, but each time the Lord said, Nevertheless, not My will, but Father, Your will be done.
In Luke 11:1 the Lord was at a certain place praying and after He finished, one of His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray; the ones around Him must have seen Him pray so much and then they asked Him to teach them to pray.
In Luke 22:32 the Lord told Peter that He made petition concerning him that, after he denies Him, his faith would not fail but that he would go and strengthen his brothers. Even before Peter betrayed the Lord, He prayed for him.
In John 17 we see the greatest prayer of the Lord as recorded in the Bible; the Lord didn’t finish His work with the disciples prior to His crucifixion with a sermon but with a prayer, the deepest and highest prayer to His Father, and in His prayer He prayed that we would be kept and perfected into one.
He prayed for the one new man to come into being. Hallelujah! There are so many other places that record the Lord praying, but these are some of them.
Lord Jesus, teach us anew how to pray! We do not want to pray in an old way, a natural way, or in a way according to our thoughts. We take You as the Man of prayer to be our pattern, and we come to You again and again. May we learn from You to pray before we do anything, as we do anything, and even after we do anything. Thank You Lord that You pray for us, You intercede for us, and You in us are praying all the time. We want to be one with You in prayer to pray ourselves into God and be one with God for what He wants to gain on earth today, the one new man!
The Governing Principle of our Prayer should be that Prayer Brings us into God
In Luke 11:1-13 the Lord Jesus laid forth the principles of prayer; He didn’t tell us that we should pray only this prayer, but, at the request of His disciples, He taught us how to pray.
As the Lord was praying, the disciples were watching; after He finished, they asked Him to teach them to pray.
And He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us into temptation.
Such a prayer is not merely for our needs nor only for God’s need; it is a prayer that brings us into God.
The governing principle of our prayer should be that prayer brings us into God.
If we consider this word, this prayer, and if we pray this prayer again and again, we will find ourselves into God.
The issue of prayer should be that prayer brings us into God. Whenever our prayer doesn’t bring us into God, it is wrong, and we should not continue to pray in this way.
We may pray accusing prayers, we may pray for the Lord to change other people and cause them to see this or that, or we may pray for our own needs; the result of our prayer many times is that we’re not in God but rather, we are still in the self.
The issue of the proper prayer is that we find ourselves in God.
When we pray for the Father’s name to be sanctified, for His kingdom to come and His will to be done, and then we pray for Him to give us the bread we need, to forgive us even as we forgive others, and not to bring us into temptation but deliver us from the evil, we find ourselves in God, in the realm of God.
Sometimes our prayers don’t bring us into God but bring us out of God; the more we pray, the more outside of God we become.
But real prayer should issue in one thing: whereas before we prayed we were outside of God and apart from God, as we pray and after we pray we should find ourselves in God, in the divine and mystical realm of the Spirit, the Triune God Himself!
When our prayer brings us into God, we lose track of time and place, and we are in eternity because we are in God.
When we are into God as a result of our prayer, we will simply receive His riches into us, and the Spirit will be given to us without measure.
However, some of us pray while watching the notifications on our phone and answering emails. Because we are easily distracted from our prayer life, we need to put aside all the things that distract us and draw us from God, and simply pray until we are brought into God.
We have to get ourselves to a place where there are no outward stimulus and simply spend time with the Lord. Especially in the morning, we need to pray ourselves into the Lord; there’s no need for us to pray in detail concerning our shortcomings but pray as the Lord taught us and be brought into God.
We do have to pray for our needs, and we need to bring our sicknesses, problems, and worries before Him; but the governing principle of our prayer should be that we are brought into God.
When we are in God, we can enjoy all His riches, for the Holy Spirit is the life supply. Here we are one with the Lord for the one new man to be brought forth in reality and practicality!
Father, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen, Lord, teach us to pray in such a way that we are brought into God to be one with God and be filled with God for the practical existence of the new man. May we learn to pray ourselves into God until God is everything to us and we are in the Triune God for the fulfillment of God’s purpose!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Luke, msg. 27 (Witness by Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 6, The Prayer Needed for the Reality and Practicality of the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Lord, teach us how to pray, / Not as the nations do in vain, / But turn us from our way, / And cause us, Lord, to call on You each day— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132)
– Praying always in the spirit, / Never by our human thought! / Fellowship with God the Spirit / Only thus to us is brought. (Hymns #780)
– Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / In the spirit seek His face; / Ask and listen in His presence, / Waiting in the secret place. (Hymns #784)
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