Pray Effective Prayers by Abiding in the Lord for Him to Express Himself through us

Today we can pray effective prayers by abiding in the Lord so that He may express Himself through us in our prayer.

Effective prayers are the issue of our abiding in the Lord and of His words abiding in us; prayer is allowing God to express Himself through us and thus accomplish His purpose, for we contact God in our spirit, absorb God, and pray in a prayer, allowing God to pray in us to accomplish what He desires. Amen!

As believers in Christ, we are branches in Christ, the vine; we and Him are intimately connected, even joined together as one, in our mingled spirit.

When we believed into the Lord Jesus, we were born of God; our being begotten of God was not in our mind or emotion but in our spirit (John 1:12-13).

John 3:6 tells us that we were born of God in our spirit; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Wow.

1 Cor. 6:17 further confirms that we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and John 15:4-5 expresses the Lord’s desire for us to abide in Him and for Him to abide in us.

We can abide in the Lord by means of our mingled spirit; we abide in Him by being in our spirit and by walking according to our spirit.

Unfortunately, even though all genuine believers in Christ have been born of God in their mingled spirit, they do not know that they have been joined to the Lord as one spirit, and they don’t see that they are in Christ and all they need to do is abide in Him.

Many Christians try to do this and that, doing outward works in the church and for the Lord, but not many exercise their spirit to contact God nor do they remain in their spirit.

Rom. 8:4 tells us that the righteous requirements of God are fulfilled in us as we walk according to the Spirit.

How can we abide in the Lord and fulfil all of God’s requirements? How can we satisfy God and be one with Him?

It is not by doing this or that for Him, nor is it by us trying to improve ourselves or be better Christians.

It is simply by turning to our spirit, remaining in our spirit, and walking according to the Spirit throughout the day.

It has to do with our daily living. Our Christian life is a life of abiding in the Lord as a branch abides in the vine.

Sadly, however, many times we forget that we are in Christ and, because our conscience is stained by sin, trespasses, and being away from God, we try to “get into Christ.”

All we need to do is confess our sins under the Lord’s light by exercising our spirit, and the Lord will wash us and cleanse us.

We don’t need to improve ourselves nor do we need to perfect ourselves; we need to just come to the Lord as we are, apply His precious blood, and abide in Him by abiding in our mingled spirit!

Pray Effective Prayers by Abiding in the Lord and having His Words abiding in Us

As we believers in Christ practice abiding in the Lord by being in our spirit and walking according to the mingled spirit, something wonderful happens: we pray effective prayers, prayers that are answered by the Lord.

John 15:7 says that, as long as we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can pray whatever we will and He will do it for us.

It’s like He gives us a blank cheque which we need to just fill in – as long as we abide in the Lord.

The result or outcome of our abiding in the Lord and of His words abiding in us is that we pray effective prayers.

What are these effective prayers? Many times we think we know what to pray for, and we have a lot of things to say to the Lord, requesting this and that from Him.

But real prayer is not just us contacting God but even more, God contacting us.

A prayer according to God’s standard is one in which there’s a mutual flow between God and man; God flows in us and we contact God, and the result is effective prayers.

God and man are like electric currents flowing into one another; prayer is the flowing between God and man. Amen!

We contact God, God contacts us, and we pray in God, while God prays in us.

As we abide in the Lord and allow His words to abide in us, we pray effective prayers, prayers that God will surely answer.

God wants us to pray, for He has a heart’s desire; He wants to do something, but He will not do what is in His heart until He has man on earth to echo His desire. How about that!

The almighty God in heaven would not do what is in His heart on the earth unless He obtains a man or a group of people who are one with Him to release His desire!

We may think that God already knows what He wants to do and He’s able to do it, so why should we pray for His will to be done and for His kingdom to come?

If He can do what He wants to do, why should we pray for His desire?

We need to realize that God would rather wait until man abides in the Lord and allows His words to abide in him so that he prays effective prayers, prayers that release God’s desire and accomplish His purpose.

Prayer is man cooperating with God and working together with God, and effective prayers are the issue of man’s abiding in the Lord and the Lord’s words abiding in him.

We don’t routinely pray nor do we just utter our requests so that the Lord would meet our needs, protect us, cover our family, and bless us. This is too low.

The result of the mutual abiding of God and man is that effective prayers are uttered, for man is one with God and God is one with man for the release of what is in God’s heart through man’s prayer.

Among Christians today there are so many kinds of prayer.

Some routinely pray the Lord’s prayer, repeating the words of Matthew 6.

Others pray because they need something or they are in trouble.

But in John 15 we see effective prayers issuing out of the abiding of man in God and God in man.

If we abide in the Lord and His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we will, and it will be done for us.

If we contact God and He contacts us, if we abide in the Lord and His living words abide in us, we can ask whatever we will, and He will do it!

We spend time with the Lord, contact Him, call on His name, and pray with His word, and he speaks to us and in us concerning His desire.

He puts in us certain burdens regarding the needs in the church life, the needs in the Body, certain situations that need prayer, and the needs in His recovery; so we pray, and our prayers are effective prayers, issuing out of our abiding in the Lord.

Lord Jesus, we want to abide in You today and we let Your words abide in us so that we may pray according to Your desire. Amen, Lord, we come to contact You in our prayer. We open to You. We just want to touch You in a living way. We open to You for You to contact us. Flow in us. We want to open our whole being to You so that You may flow Yourself into every part of our being. May there be a mutual contact between us and You. We come to You in Your word and we allow Your words to abide in us. May Your living words abide in us and dwell richly in our heart. Speak to us, dear Lord. Infuse Your heart’s desire into us. Make our heart a duplicate of Your heart. May we abide in You and allow Your words to abide in us so that we may pray effective prayers. Amen, Lord, gain the prayers that You need, the prayers that cooperate with Your desire. Gain a group of people on earth who are one with You to such an extent that You can pray through them that You may fulfil Your desire on earth! Amen, Lord, may Your will be done and Your kingdom come on the earth!

Prayer is man Cooperating with God and Allowing God to Express Himself from Within man

We need to learn the secret of prayer so that we may pray effective prayers.

On the one hand, we need to pray for ourselves, for our needs, for the needs of our family, for the church, for the society we are in, and for all men.

On the other hand, we need to utter effective prayers, prayers issuing out of our abiding in the Lord.

Many times, however, we do not know what to pray for and even we don’t know how to pray.

The Spirit joins in to help us in our weakness, for we don’t know for what we should pray as is fitting; therefore, the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26-27).

We may think we know what to pray for, but we actually don’t.

We may think that, since we’re in pain and our health is not that good, we should pray desperately for our healing.

If we lack and don’t have the things necessary for our daily living, we desperately pray for the Lord’s supply.

And if there are problems in our family, at work, and in society, we pray for all these problems.

It is very good to do this, but the prayer that God desires to gain from His people is much higher than this.

Prayer is not just us praying; prayer is the Spirit joining in our weakness to join in with our prayer, even to intercede for us according to God.

Many times we groan before the Lord, for we don’t know what to pray for, yet there’s a groaning in us; the Spirit groans in our groaning.

We need to learn the secret of prayer, which is that we cooperate with God in prayer, work together with God, and allow God to express Himself from within us and through us to fulfil His purpose.

We may know what people ordinarily call supplication, but we know little about the prayer that is spoken of in the Bible.

Thank the Lord that the Spirit joins in to help us and intercede for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Real prayers are the Holy Spirit within us expressing God’s desire through us. Amen!

Real prayers involve both God and man – not just man and not just God, but God and man.

Man abides in God, God abides in man, and man is mingled with God and God is mingled with man; the result is that man prays effective prayers, which is the expression of God’s prayers in man.

We pray not just as men here on earth expressing their needs or desires before God; we pray one with the Lord, even pray by being mingled with the Lord.

Effective prayers are the Spirit mingling Himself with man, putting on man, and joining with man in prayer to express the mind of the Spirit through man.

Outwardly it is us praying, for we are uttering the prayers; actually, it is the Spirit praying in our prayer.

Two parties express the same prayer at the same time.

This is similar to what we see in James 5:17, where Elijah, a man of like feeling with us, earnestly prayed that it would not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months.

The expression “earnestly prayed” can be translated as “prayed with prayer” or “prayed in prayer.”

Elijah didn’t pray his prayer according to his feeling and desire; he prayed the prayer given to him by the Lord.

When he was praying, he was praying with a prayer, in a prayer.

This is the real prayer, the effective prayer: the Spirit praying in our prayer and our allowing the Lord to express Himself through us in prayer.

Andrew Murray once said that real prayer is the Christ who indwells us, praying to the Christ sitting on the throne.

This may sound strange, but this is real prayer: we are one with the Lord by abiding in Him and letting His words abide in us, and He prays in us the prayers He needs to do what He wants to do, and the Christ on the throne does what He intends to do.

We pray, but it’s not us who is praying; rather, we’re mingled with the Lord, we are one with Him, and He prays in us, and our prayer is His prayer.

We abide in the vine by living in the mingled spirit, and we find ourselves all the time in this continuous prayer, which is the Lord praying; we simply utter His prayer, and He can do what He wants to do.

This is why so many times as we do this and that, we suddenly feel we should pray for this brother or that sister, or that we should pray for this situation or that problem.

The Lord is continually praying, and we are in this flow between God and man; we, therefore, utter His prayer, for the Christ within us prays to the Christ on the throne for God’s will to be done on earth.

There’s a constant prayer silently going on in the universe and also within us; as we abide in the Lord, we touch this prayer, enter into this prayer, and allow the Lord within us to express Himself and pray in us. Amen!

Through prayer we contact God and absorb God in our spirit (Eph. 6:18).

Then, we experience the indwelling Christ and live Christ by praying in a genuine way, that is, by allowing the indwelling Christ to pray in us and through us (Col. 1:27; 3:4; Phil. 1:20-21).

May the Lord upgrade our prayers.

May we pray not just for people or things or even just for the items of prayer on the prayer list of the church but pray effective prayers one with the Lord.

We need the kind of prayer that brings us into contact with the Lord, the prayer that causes us to be one with Him in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17).

When we’re one with the Lord and abide in Him, He in us prays by expressing His desire in us and through us, and we pray one with Him, uttering His prayers in our prayer.

Then, He can do what He wants to do, He can meet the need, and He can build up the church, for He has a group of people on earth who cooperate with Him in prayer.

Lord Jesus, teach us how to pray and what to pray for. We admit that we don’t know for what we should pray as is fitting. Thank You for coming in as the Spirit to intercede for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Amen, Lord, He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to God. We open to You. We want to abide in You. Mingle Yourself with us and make us one with You so that our prayer would express Your prayer. We want to cooperate with God and work together with God in prayer. Amen, Lord, we allow You to express Yourself through us and thus accomplish Your purpose. May we pray in a prayer, praying the prayers that You put in us. May we be so open to the indwelling Christ so that His prayers become our prayers and our prayers would express God and His desire! Oh Lord, have a free way to express Yourself and Your desire through us! May the Christ who indwells us pray to the Christ who is sitting on the throne so that God’s will may be done and His kingdom would come on the earth! Amen, Lord, gain such effective prayers on the earth from Your people who abide in You and are fully one with You in spirit!

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 brother James Lee in the message for this week, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1959, vol. 4, “Lessons on Prayer,” pp. 22-23, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life (2024 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 4, Abiding in Christ as the True Vine.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – 2 Means to Effective Prayer You Can Apply Every Day, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Prayer is man as well as his prayer passing through God, a portion from, Lessons on Prayer, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ, the Cross, and the Church, via, Shepherding Words.
  – How to Practice the Private Prayer Described in Matthew 6:6, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Prayer, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 34, by Witness Lee.
  – Prepare by Praying the Word in Spirit, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The prayer and the subjective experience of Christ that we must have for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in Affirmation and Critique.
  – Two Vital Means to Effective Prayer—the Blood and the Name of Jesus, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – 24 Practical Points on Prayer Transcript, via, Living to Him.
  – Prayer is man cooperating with God and co-working with God, allowing God to express Himself and His desire through man, and thus accomplish His purpose, a portion from, Lessons on Prayer, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Praying to express the Lord, / We must not ourselves express, / But let Christ reveal Himself, / His desire in us impress. / Praying to express the Lord, / We must utter His intent, / Quieting our human thoughts / That with His our mind be blent. (Hymns #785 stanzas 1-2)
  – Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Speaking nothing in pretense; / Ask according to the spirit, / Praying by the inner sense. / Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / List’ning earnestly to Him; / Be impressed with His intentions, / Yielding to Him from within. (Hymns #784 stanzas 4-5)
  – Pray to labor with the Lord, / Pray to pave the way for Him; / Pray to move Him and be moved / From the center to the rim. / Pray to labor with the Lord, / Be identified with Him / In His purpose and His aim / Till His blessing floodeth in. (Hymns #786 stanzas 1-2)