For the living of the new man we need to persevere in prayer so that we may absorb the riches of Christ and stand on God’s side for Him to carry out what’s on His heart.
In Colossians 3 Paul spoke of the one new man where Christ is everything and everyone, and right after that he mentioned these three main practical ways to maintain the living of the new man.
First, we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts, for we were called to this peace in the Body of Christ (Col. 3:15). This means that we need to enthrone the peace of Christ as the arbiter, the umpire, the referee, and allow the peace of Christ to decide things in us and settle any disputes, making the final decision, and keep us in peace and oneness.
Then, we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly to saturate our inward being and reconstitute us with the element of God (Col. 3:16). When the peace of Christ arbitrates in our hearts, we are preserved in a situation of peace, oneness, and harmony, and we have God’s speaking.
In such a situation we can let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, allowing the word to make its home in us and redecorate and reconstruct us with the element of God. When we simply let the word of God dwell in us richly, we experience the functions of the word of God to minister the riches of Christ into us by operating in our being.
The word of God is living and operative, and when we simply cooperate with the Lord as we read and pray over His word, when we allow the Lord to speak in us and operate in our being according to His word, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind for the living of the one new man.
The word of God has many functions, for it supplies us with food and water, it heals us, it strengthens us, it builds us up, it perfects and completes us, it sanctified us, and it edifies us.
The word of God is the embodiment of God in Christ as the Spirit, and when we turn our heart to the Lord and exercise our spirit to read the word of God, our thirst is quenched, our hunger is satisfied, we are strengthened, we are healed, we are perfected and completed, we are washed, and we are edified and built up.
When we allow the word of God to inhabit us richly, we will become a proper human being – a God-man who is filled with Christ as the reality of the attributes of God for the living of the one new man.
We need to Persevere in Prayer by Spending Adequate Time to Absorb the Riches of Christ
We not only have the peace of Christ and the word of Christ, but we also need to persevere in prayer, that is, pray unceasingly, pray persistently, pray more and more (see Col. 4:2-3).
As believers in Christ we all pray from time to time, but we need to see our need to persevere in prayer for the living of the one new man. We need to allow adequate time for prayer, for prayer enables us to absorb more of the riches of Christ as the all-inclusive land (Col. 1:12; 2:6-7; 4:2).
When we pray, we shouldn’t merely ask God for things but fellowship with Him face to face so that we may be infused with Him and mingled with Him.
We have already been rooted in Christ, we have been planted into Christ as the good land, and now we need to take time to pray to absorb the riches of Christ continually.
Just as we daily take time to prepare our food and eat, we should also daily take time to absorb the Lord, assimilate Him, and be constituted with His riches. We should not rush our contact with the Lord; if we contact the Lord in a hurry habitually, we won’t be able to absorb much of His riches.
How can we absorb Christ and be saturated with the Spirit? On His side, He has prepared everything for us; He went through a process, became a life-giving Spirit, and He is now embodied in His word – now God is ready and waiting for us.
We need to go to the Lord again and again, and especially first thing in the morning. We need to contact the Lord in a definite and prevailing way.
We may contact the Lord here and there, once in a while, but we need to have set times with the Lord in which we simply spend time with Him in prayer and in His word to contact Him and absorb Him.
When we rise up in the morning, we need to spend not only five minutes with the Lord but at least thirty minutes to absorb Him, behold His face, and allow Him to saturate us.
We all should allow the Lord to nourish us and water us, so that we may absorb His riches; such an absorption will cause us to live Him out, and it will make us one with Him practically.
It may be helpful for us to turn off our phone and stay away from any screen (tablet, laptop, computer, etc) so that we may focus just on the Lord.
Our focus has to be the Lord Himself, not merely going through our Bible reading schedule or reading the Holy Word for Morning Revival. We need to shut everything and everyone out for a set period of time to just contact the Lord.
To meet with God in the morning is not only to meet with Him early in the day; it is also to meet with God in a situation that is full of light; we should go to God alone, without any persons, matters, or things to distract or occupy us (Prov. 4:18; Exo. 33:11a; 34:3-4; Mark 1:35).
When we pray to contact the Lord and persevere in prayer, we come forward to the throne of grace; grace as a river will flow in us and will supply us (Heb. 4:16; cf. Rev. 22:1). Our first order of business is not to petition the Lord but to unload ourselves so that grace may flow into us and fill us to supply us.
Without such a grace, we cannot live Christ and we cannot have the reality of the new man.
Lord Jesus, we want to persevere in prayer by spending adequate time with You in Your word and prayer to absorb the riches of Christ. Thank You for rooting us into You as the rich all-inclusive land. We want to set time aside every day to simply behold You face to face, be infused with You, and absorb You. Lord, You are our focus, and we want to put everything else aside to just enjoy You. Speak to us, Lord. Nourish us in Your word. Be infused into our being so that we may live Christ for the one new man.
We need to Persevere in Prayer by setting aside Definite Times for Prayer daily
Why does Paul encourage us to “persevere in prayer” (Col. 4:2) and “pray unceasingly”? It is because in this universe there’s a battle raging between God and Satan, and through our prayer we can join God to fight against His enemy Satan.
To persevere in prayer is to continue in prayer persistently, steadfastly, and earnestly.
Satan is the adversary within and the enemy without, and he opposes God both from outside and from within; we need to join God in this battle by persevering in prayer.
We need to persevere in prayer because the course of the whole world is away from God and even against God; when we persevere in prayer, we go against the current, the trend, in this fallen universe.
When we persevere in prayer we row the boat upstream, but when we are not definite about our prayer life, we are carried downstream by the current in this age.
We all realize our need to persevere in prayer, but what is a practical way for us to do this?
It is not by promising the Lord to do this, but by coming to Him in all honestly and “making a deal” with Him concerning our prayer life. We may tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, I am desperate about my prayer life. I offer myself to You so that I may persevere in prayer. Lord, keep me in the spirit of prayer. Even if I forget about prayer or neglect it, I know that You will not forget it. Oh Lord, remind me again and again about prayer. I want to stand on Your side day by day in prayer, for You to accomplish what You are after in me and in the church.
Before we even try to persevere in prayer, it is good to pray and open to the Lord about it, confessing our inability to have a prayer life. Then, after we may such a deal with the Lord concerning prayer, we should set aside definite times for prayer.
We shouldn’t just “leave it all up to the Lord” for Him to remind us to pray; we need to be practical and set aside definite times for prayer. We may set aside ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes at lunchtime, and ten minutes in the evening or at night.
During this time our top priority shouldn’t be anything else but prayer; prayer is our most important business, and nothing should be allowed to interfere with it. Things may come up, emergencies may arise, and people may require our presence, but we need to reserve time for the Lord every day to persevere in prayer.
By setting aside definite times during the day to pray, and by reminding the Lord about it, we can maintain a prayer life. Persevering in prayer has to become our habit, and for this we need to work harder in the beginning until we start to enjoy it and it becomes normal to us.
Our greatest shortcoming is that we don’t have an adequate prayer life – we do pray daily, but do not pray adequately. Many times we forget that there’s a warfare in this universe, and we don’t exercise our spirit; whenever we don’t exercise our spirit, we are in our natural man, and we have nothing to do with the new man.
We need to set aside definite times for prayer; our attitude should be that prayer is our most important business and that nothing should be allowed to interfere with it (Dan. 6:10; Acts 12:5, 12).
We need to return to our spirit again and again and pay attention to the Lord within us, spending time with Him to persevere in prayer with Him and before Him; this will maintain the living of the one new man.
Lord Jesus, we confess that we do not have an adequate prayer life, and prayer is still not our most important business. Oh Lord, we give ourselves to You to go against the current in this age and persevere in prayer. Strengthen us, Lord, to set aside definite times for prayer, realizing that prayer is our top priority and our most important business. Break through in us, and remove any resistance to prayer in our being. We want to be in our spirit contacting You all throughout the day for the living of the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 30, 53, 55 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Goal of the Lord’s Recovery – to Bring Forth the One New Man (2018 ICSC), week 5, Allowing the Peace of Christ to Arbitrate in Our Hearts, Letting the Word of Christ Dwell in Us Richly, and Persevering in Prayer for the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Take time to absorb Him, to gain the supply, / That we may be watered and nourished thereby; / The deeper the roots spread, the deeper the flow, / And richer and higher within us He’ll grow. (Song on, Taking time to absorb the Lord)
# E’en as the priests the incense burned, / In prayer to Thee I persevere; / As incense Thou the Spirit art / Mixed with the prayer I offer here. (Hymns #813)
# 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)
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