Prayer is the Mutual Contact between Man and God to Absorb and Express God in Prayer

In order for us to pray with God as our faith, we need to know the meaning of prayer; prayer is the flowing between man and God and the mutual contact between man and God, and a praying person cooperates with God and allows God to express Himself through his prayer.

This week in our morning revival on the topic of, God’s Economy in Faith, we come to the subject of, Praying with God as our Faith.

God’s economy is in faith; everything of God and of our spiritual life is in the realm of faith.

We believers in Christ live, work, and serve in the realm of God’s economy; our living and labouring for the Lord is not in ourselves or in the outward realm but in the realm of faith, for God’s economy is in faith.

In order for God to accomplish His economy, the top thing is the matter of prayer, for the way we cooperate with God for His economy is through prayer.

And as we pray, we shouldn’t think that merely saying some words, making some enquiries, and bringing our needs and problems before the Lord is all that is to prayer.

Prayer is something very vast and quite crucial in our Christian life, and it is imperative that we see the proper definition of prayer and have the most uplifted prayer life with the Lord for us to cooperate with Him for His economy in faith.

We need to acquire a new appreciation, even a much deeper appreciation, of the matter of prayer, and in particular how to cooperate with God by praying by faith and with God as our faith.

Only in this way, when we pray with God as our faith, can we really pray the prayer of authority.

There is a particular kind of prayer covered in the Bible in which we don’t beg God to do this nor do we merely thank Him for doing what He has done; we pray commanding prayers, prayers of authority, to release the will of God on earth and to bind the enemy.

This is the prayer of the church, and the church needs to carry out its prayer ministry in order to cooperate with the moving and operating God for the fulfilment of His economy on earth today.

In Mark 11:20-24 we see how the Lord cursed the fig tree, and then He taught the disciples a lesson on how to pray. If we pray with God as our faith, even though there may be a mountain in front of us, it will be moved and cast into the sea.

We need to learn how to pray by faith, pray with faith, and pray with God as our faith.

May the Lord have mercy on us and unveil us to see more of God’s economy in faith and grant us the grace to cooperate with Him for the fulfilment of His economy through our prayer with God as our faith.

The Meaning of Prayer: Prayer is the Flowing between Man and God and the Mutual Contact between Man and God

What is prayer? In order for us to pray with God as our faith, we need to first see what prayer is.

Many Christians think that to pray is to bring your requests to God, to tell Him about your problems, and to ask Him to do this and that, to cover and protect you, and to meet the needs of those around us.

The natural understanding of prayer is that, when we find ourselves in a needy situation or position, we are deficient of something and we need help from God, so we pray.

The natural understanding of prayer is that we need God’s supply, and His support, so we come to Him to ask Him to do something for us and meet our needs.

We petition Him, and we ask Him concerning the things we need, seeking an answer from Him.

We can’t say that this is a wrong understanding, but it is somewhat natural and superficial.

We need to come to the word of God and see what is the meaning of prayer according to the Bible.

Many figures both in the Old and the New Testament prayed, and there are examples of such ones as Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, the prophets, the Lord Jesus, and Paul who prayed.

We need to put aside our present understanding of prayer, our deficient understanding of what prayer is, in order for us to know how to pray by faith.

In Matt. 6:9-10 the Lord teaches us how to pray by first sanctifying the Father’s name and praying for His kingdom to come and for His will to be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.

In Matt. 21:22 the Lord told us that, all that we ask in prayer, if we believe, we will receive.

And 1 John 5:14-15 says that we have a boldness toward God that, if we ask anything according to His will, he will hear us.

Prayer is the flowing between man and God; prayer is the mutual contact between man and God.

Praying is not just asking God to do this or that; prayer is not merely asking God to meet our needs or help us in a particular situation.

We may be petitioning God and asking Him for this and that, but we may not be really praying because prayer misses God’s goal.

The first thing related to prayer is that prayer is the flowing between man and God, and prayer is the mutual contact between man and God.

Prayer is the highest form of contact, fellowship, and communion between God and man.

The traffic between God and man is expressed in its highest form through prayer.

Prayer is not just man directing a request to God or God hearing man and answering that request; prayer is a flow, a flow between man and God, and a contact, the mutual contact between man and God.

Whether we have a need or not, we need to pray; we need to pray without ceasing, we need to pray all the time, for we want to remain in constant contact with God.

When we have such constant contact with God, there’s a flow between God and us, and God is dispensed into us and we are built into God.

If we study the up-to-standard prayers in the Old Testament we will see that the first thing is that man and God came in contact, and there was a flow, a fellowship, a traffic; then, there’s something that happened between man and God, between earth and heaven.

Through prayer we are connected to God and God is connected to us; He flows into us and we are brought into Him, and there’s a mutual contact between man and God.

When we pray real prayers, when we enter into a true prayer, we experience the flowing between man and God and the mutual contact between God and man.

If there is no flow between God and man, we better stop our prayer and contact the Lord.

Prayer is not merely something we read from a prayer book or something we utter from our mind; prayer is coming to contact God and allowing God to contact us.

God, who is infinite, vast, immense, all-knowing, self-existing, and ever-existing, wants to be in fellowship with man; in Himself, He has no need for anyone to exist or be, but in His economy, He needs man.

Without man, God has no place to put Himself – He has no home, He’s like a homeless God.

The great God who created all things needs man to open to Him, contact Him, and receive Him, even to be one with Him in prayer, so that – in this mutual contact between God and man – God would utter His prayers through man, and He would carry out what He desires on earth.

Just as we have a stomach for us to contain food, so we have a human spirit to contain God and receive God; we are vessels to contain God.

If in our prayer we don’t contact God or touch God, and if God doesn’t touch or contact us, then our prayer is below the proper standard.

Every prayer that’s up to God’s standard is one which is a mutual flow and contact between God and man.

God flows in us, we contact God, He contacts us, and we are one with God; in this way, we are joined and united with God, and He is joined and united with us.

May we enter into this highest and most accurate definition of prayer and pray prayers that are up to God’s standard.

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray real prayers, prayers that You are pleased with and that move Your hand. Save us from praying in a natural way. We come to You, dear Lord, to contact You and enjoy You; we want to pray in the flowing between man and God. May our prayer be the mutual contact between man and God. Keep us abiding in You so that You may abide in us. May our prayer be our contacting God and God contacting us. Amen, Lord, flow in us and through us. We come to You to contact You again and again; we want to remain in the organic union with You and pray in oneness with You so that You may express Your thoughts and desires through our prayers. Amen, Lord, uplift our prayer life. Uplift our experience of prayer. May our prayer be up to Your standard and touch Your heart.

Contacting God in our Spirit to Absorb God and allowing God to Express Himself from Within us

Since prayer is the flowing between man and God and the mutual contact between man and God, the real significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God (Eph. 6:18).

In our prayer we not only contact God but we also absorb God.

What a marvellous matter it is that we, human beings, can contact God and remain in the mutual contact between God and man, and in this touch with God we can absorb God! Wow!

In our prayer, we receive some dispensing from God, some impartation from God Himself. He is transmitting Himself into us as we open to Him and contact Him, and we just utter back to Him what He infuses into us through our contact with Him.

There is a traffic going on between God and man, heaven and earth; we absorb God, and we speak back to God what He has infused into us.

Whatever we pray in this way, He will answer, for He Himself has initiated the prayer, and the words we speak are His words infused into us.

As praying persons, we cooperate with God and work together with God, for we allow God to express Himself with His desire from within us and through us. Wow!

We need to have an uplifted view and experience of our prayer and our prayer life.

We want to contact God and allow God to contact us, and in this mutual contact between God and man, we absorb God and are infused with what is in God’s mind, heart, feeling, and desire.

We simply absorb what He is, for He infuses Himself into us.

As we remain open to the Lord in our contact with Him, we are mingled with God; now, we are ready to pray, labor, and work together with God, for we are fully one with God.

There is no higher work that a church or a Christian can do on earth than to work together with God and cooperate with God by means of prayer, when this prayer is man being mingled with God, man absorbing God, and man allowing God to express Himself from within man. Wow.

Real prayer is not just us expressing before God what we need, what we want, and what our problems are; real prayer is touching God, receiving something of God into us, and allowing God to express Himself from within us.

When we pray in this way, God will carry out whatever we have asked Him; such a prayer is not our prayer but His prayer in our prayer.

Now we understand that, whenever we ask something according to His will, he will do it. To ask according to God’s will doesn’t mean that we end the prayer with, We ask this in Your name and for Your will.

We need to absorb God and understand His will, turn this will into prayer and express this will to God, and He will carry out what is in His heart.

It is actually God being expressed through our prayer, for He has a way to express Himself and His desire from within us and through us.

This is to be a channel for God to do what He wants. Real prayers cause our being to be wholly mingled with God and God to be fully mingled with us (1 Cor. 6:17).

Through prayer, God and man are mingled together as one, and man is joined and blended with God, while God is mingled with us.

God and man are one, and God and man have one heart and one mind; at that moment, the earth and the heavens are joined, and the will of the heavens is carried out on earth through the mutual contact between God and man.

We need to experience such a prayer and have the desire to pray in this way. We may even tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, make us praying persons who cooperate with God through their prayer. May we be fully mingled with God and may God be fully mingled with us through our prayer. We come to You, dear Lord, to just absorb You; we come open, unveiled, and unloaded, and we open to Your divine dispensing. Dispense Yourself with Your thought, Your desire, and Your mind into us. May the primary issue in our prayer be our absorbing God to be made one with God. Oh Lord, we don’t know what to pray for, and we don’t know to pray as is fitting. Mingle Yourself with us more today. Cause us to be mingled with You. Have a way to express Your desire and Your mind through our prayer so that You may carry out what You want to do. Amen, Lord, grant us such an experience of prayer both personally and corporately!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1959, vol. 4, “Lessons on Prayer,” ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 3, entitled, Praying with God as our Faith.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Fully opened from within, / With thy face unveiled, beholding, / Single, pure, and genuine. / Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Seeking Him in confidence; / Learn to touch Him as the Spirit, / Looking up in reverence. (Hymns #784)
  – Praying always in the spirit / Is the secret we are told! / In the spirit, God to contact, / Is the secret we must hold! / Praying always in the spirit, / Never by our human thought! / Fellowship with God the Spirit / Only thus to us is brought. (Hymns #780)
  – Waiting on Thee, Lord, waiting on Thee; / While here with Thee I stay, / Show me Thy glorious way, / Ever by Thee to pray- / Waiting on Thee, waiting on Thee. (Hymns #792)