Hannah’s experience in 1 Sam 1 shows that we need to pour out our soul before the Lord in the midst of our bitterness, and the Lord will have a way to produce us as His overcomers.
The first chapter of 1 Samuel is so significant and applicable in our Christian experience, for here we see not only how Hannah was motivated by God to utter the prayer she did in order to cooperate with Him, but also that she cooperated with God unwittingly yet willingly, through her prayer.
Actually, the man-child that Hannah prayed in 1 Sam. 1 is the man-child that is brought forth in Rev. 12, and this man-child is giving the Lord the cooperation He needs to turn the age.
It is quite amazing to realize that, when the man-child comes forth and is caught up to God in heaven, Satan is cast down to the earth, and many events are triggered in heaven and on earth that result in the coming of the kingdom.
Throughout the centuries, the people of God have been in travail to produce not only those who obey God and keep His word but even more, produce the overcomers.
In all ages, it is the overcomers that fulfill God’s purpose, and it is the man-child in principle that gives God the cooperation He needs in order to carry out God’s purpose in that age.
The greatest dispensational change is about to happen, for God intends to end the age of the church and bring in the age of the kingdom.
Who will give God the cooperation He needs in order for Him to bring in the kingdom of God and end this evil age?
It is the man-child, the corporate body of overcoming ones.
This is why in the book of Revelation the Lord’s eyes are not set merely on building up the church but on the overcomers.
From the very first chapter of Revelation, God’s desire is to gain the overcomers; He is calling them out, He is obtaining them, and it is by means of the man-child that He can accomplish what is in His heart.
The whole body of God’s people throughout the ages can be likened to a great universally bright woman, shining by reflecting God’s light to the universe.
However, within this woman – which signifies the people of God being weak and depending on God – there is a stronger part, the man-child, which is being produced today, for God to obtain the dispensational instrument He requires to end this age and bring in the next age.
Amen, may we be those who are not only inspired by this but also cooperate with God in prayer for Him to gain what He is after, the man-child today as the dispensational instrument that cooperates with Him to end this age!
Pour out our Soul before the Lord in the Midst of our Bitterness – Just Tell the Lord Everything!
Hannah’s experience shows us that we need to pour out our soul before the Lord even in the midst of our bitterness.
We may experience a situation of bitterness, even as we walk according to our mingled spirit, and there’s nothing that seems to change in our situation.
In Hannah’s situation, she was pressed and provoked, and the other wife caused her to be even more bitter concerning her situation.
What Hannah did is what we all should do today: we should pour out our soul before the Lord in the midst of our bitterness, and we will be produced as the Lord’s overcomers.
Actually, bitterness is not only in our situation, bringing us into a situation of bitterness; bitterness is also in our being, for we have bitterness in us, in our very being.
Even more, being in a situation of bitterness and having bitterness in our being is not a one-time occurrence; it is something that happens repeatedly. Bitterness is something that we encounter not frequently but repeatedly.
How should we deal with it? How can we get rid of our bitterness?
It is only by pouring out our soul before the Lord in the midst of our bitterness, and He will have a way.
Hannah’s prayer came out of her bitter circumstances and her bitter being (1 Sam. 1:6, 10); she told Eli, “I am a woman oppressed in spirit…I have been pouring out my soul before Jehovah…Out of the greatness of my anxiety and provocation I have been speaking all this time” (vv. 15-16).
May we be those who, whenever we encounter a situation of bitterness and when bitterness is exposed in our being, we would trust in the Lord at all times and pour out our heart before Him, for God is a refuge to us (Psa. 62:8).
When we pour out our soul before the Lord, when our heart is being poured out before Him in prayer and we tell Him concerning our problems and bitterness, such prayer to contact God consists of words spoken genuinely from the heart.
We need to have a constant practice, even a habit, to pour out our soul before the Lord. We need to build up this divine and mystical habit in our Christian life.
If we don’t do it, bitterness will fill our being and will come out instead of life; if we pour out our soul before the Lord in the midst of bitterness, we will be produced as His overcomers.
The first thing concerning our private time with the Lord in prayer is to speak genuinely from the heart.
Prayer that contacts God consists of words spoken genuinely from the heart; we must pray not according to what we think or utter pre-meditated words but rather, we should speak from our heart in a genuine way.
We must pray to the Lord according to our inward feeling.
When we come before God, we should not be pretentious; we shouldn’t pretend that everything is OK and thank Him for this and that but rather, we should pour out our soul before Him even in the midst of bitterness.
How and why would we pretend before God? He knows our situation and the condition of our inner being.
When we are angry, we should confess this before Him; when we are happy, we should tell Him about it. He knows whether we’re angry, upset, worried, or sad; we should simply pour out our soul before the Lord.
If we sense we are sinful, we should confess it before God; we should speak what we feel within, speaking genuine words from our heart.
Psa. 102 is a prayer of an afflicted one when he is fainting and pours his complaint before Jehovah. We may want to complain about our situation, yet we should do it not before man but before God.
Sometimes our best prayer is our complaining; our complaining to God may be the most pleasant prayer to God.
While we are complaining, God is rejoicing because He is causing all things to work together for good so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ, the Firstborn Son of God.
We may experience the sorrow of losing our parents, losing our children, losing our spouse or brothers or relatives, and that results in our being sorrowful, depressed, and disappointed.
Even worse, we may see no way out of our sorrowful condition. We should just tell Him; we should just pour out our heart before the Lord in the midst of bitterness, and He will listen to us.
God is the best listener; He listens to us. He knows our emotion and mind and thoughts; as we pour out our soul before the Lord, our intimacy with the Lord is one step further and we know Him a little more.
Our intimate contact with the Lord at these times is hundreds of times better than our ordinary fellowship with Him; by such contact with Him, we advance in life and grow in life.
Even more, through such contact with Him, our pouring out our heart to Him in the midst of bitterness, He has a way to align our heart with His, and our prayers will match His prayers, with the result that we are produced as His overcomers.
Lord Jesus, we come to You to pour out our soul before You even in the midst of bitterness. You know the bitterness in our situation and in our being. We don’t know how to deal with this bitterness, Lord, and we can’t change our situation; we simply come to You and we tell You everything. Amen, Lord, we love You and we tell You everything; we open and pour out our heart before. Save us from complaining concerning our situation to man; may we utter our complaints to God! Amen, Lord, we want to build up a divine and mystical habit of pouring out our heart before the Lord until His heart is duplicated in us and we pray what is in His heart. Amen, Lord Jesus, have Your way to produce us as Your overcomers as we pour out our soul and heart before You in the midst of bitterness!
Pouring out our Soul before the Lord Produces us as His Overcomers through the application of the Cross
The Lord is the person we should be most intimate with; He knows us most intimately, and we should tell Him everything.
We should bring our problems to the Lord and tell Him about them; it is only He who can comfort us and help us.
If we have never shed tears before the Lord, if we never shared our joy or sorrow with Him, if we never talked with the Lord about our most private matters, we have never had any intimate fellowship with Him.
We can have a deep acquaintance with the Lord only by telling Him everything, and we do this as we pour out our soul before the Lord.
We are breathing out our sorrow, our sin, our life of self, our natural life, and everything, and we are breathing Him in as our life and everything.
The more we breathe ourselves out, the more we have room in us to breathe Him in.
When Hannah prayed to the Lord and poured out her bitterness, she was honest with the Lord, and she had an intimate acquaintance with the Lord in her bitterness.
So she prayed to the Lord and touched His heart, and she prayed for a Nazarite, an overcoming Nazarite who would bring in the king with his kingdom.
When we come to bitter waters, we should not be disappointed or dismayed but simply remember that this is an opportunity for us to draw near to the Lord.
It is time to cry out to Him and to pray to Him in a real and sincere way. If we do this, we will know the Lord more, we will grow in life, and we will be produced as overcomers; even more, the Lord will flow out of us to produce other overcomers.
Whenever we are in bitter circumstances and are bitter in our being, we need to pour out our soul with our heart to the Lord by being real and honest with Him; such prayer produces the overcomers, who will bring in the King with the kingdom.
When we come to “bitter waters,” we have to realize that God is sovereignly and secretly motivating us to pray in a desperate way not only for our inner healing (Exo. 15:26) but even more for the producing of overcoming Nazarites, who will cooperate with Him to bring in the King with His kingdom.
It is in this kingdom that the name of God will be excellent on all the earth (Psa. 8:1) and the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).
In Exo. 15:22 we see that, after going through the wilderness for three days, the children of Israel arrived at Marah, there was water, but the water was bitter.
They murmured against Moses and he cried out to Jehovah; Jehovah showed him a tree, and he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet (Exo. 15:22-25).
The tree that the Lord showed Moses signifies the tree of life (Rev. 2:7); in Greek, the word for “tree” here is the same as the word used for tree in 1 Pet. 2:24.
The tree of life in Rev. 2:7 signifies the crucified and resurrected Christ.
When we encounter bitterness in our situation or in our being, we need to pour out our soul before the Lord, and He will show us a tree – the crucified and resurrected Christ.
When we apply such a Christ to our being, He heals us, and we are being produced as overcomers for the fulfillment of His purpose.
We need to experience the Lord’s healing in this way time and time again.
May we learn to pour out our soul with our heart to the Lord by being real and honest with Him. Such prayer will produce the overcomers, who will bring in the King with the kingdom.
Lord Jesus, keep us coming to You and opening our heart to You in prayer even in the midst of bitterness in our situation and in our being. Amen, Lord, we want to learn to pour out our soul with our heart to You by being real and honest with You. May such prayer produce the overcomers who will bring in the King with the kingdom. Oh Lord, may we take the opportunity, whenever bitterness comes, to pour out our heart and soul to You so that You may produce us as Your overcomers, those who end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom! Amen, Lord Jesus, do this in us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks, and portions from, Life-Study of Exodus, msg. 30 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 2, entitled, The Hannah Ministry.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Overcome! Overcome! / Overcome the degradation of the church! / All your working lay aside, / All the teachings that divide; / Eat the Lord whate’er betide— / Overcome! (Hymns #1273)
– O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me, / Teach me how to breathe Thee in; / Help me pour into Thy bosom / All my life of self and sin. / I am breathing out my sorrow, / Breathing out my sin; / I am breathing, breathing, breathing, / All Thy fulness in. (Hymns #255)
– All my sicknesses I bring Him, / And He bears them all away; / All my fears and griefs I tell Him, / All my cares from day to day, / All my strength I draw from Jesus, / By His breath I live and move; / E’en His very mind He gives me, / And His faith, and life, and love. (Hymns #564)
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