As believers in Christ, we need to be those who have prayers that express God’s will and our desire to have our spiritual border be enlarged; we need to see God’s will, pray it back to Him, and ask the Lord to enlarge our enjoyment of Christ. Amen!
This week we are considering crucial aspects of living in the good land after returning from captivity in Babylon.
There are many aspects to our living in the church life and in our personal Christian life, and some of these aspects are crucial, being portrayed in the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles.
First of all, we need to be faithful to God; the reason we are taken into captivity is because of our unfaithfulness to God.
In ourselves, we can’t be faithful, but we have a faithful God who cannot deny Himself, and this One lives in us to make us the same as He is in His faithfulness.
He is faithful toward us, and He is faithful in us. By feeding on His faithfulness, we become as faithful as He is.
He makes us faithful in our stewardship, in the stewardship that He has appointed to us.
We will even become the called and chosen and faithful, those who follow Him as the Word of God and fight one with Him to defeat the enemy. Hallelujah!
The second crucial aspect is that we need to know, obey, and worship Jehovah.
He is not only our God, the Creator, but He is also Jehovah, the self-existing and ever-existing One who fulfils His promises and has a relationship with us.
Yes, God created us and yes, He gives us life and breath, but at the same time He wants to be intimately related to us and have fellowship with us.
He is the reality of the verb to be, for He is; when we draw close to God, we need to believe that He is and that He is a rewarder for those who diligently seek Him.
He is the I am, the One who is all that we need.
Everything we need, He is. We need to know Him, obey Him, and worship Him as such a One.
The third crucial aspect of living in the good land as revealed in 1 and 2 Chronicles is returning to the genuine ground of oneness, the ground of the church.
This ground is composed of the oneness of the universal Body of Christ, the unique ground of the locality, and the reality of the Spirit of oneness.
This ground keeps us one and allows us to be one with all the brothers and sisters in that locality, who together with us are members of the Body of Christ part of the local expression of the Body.
The fourth aspect is that we need to remember the covenant that God made with Abraham; according to this covenant made through the crucified and resurrected Christ, we inherit the good land as our portion.
Christ paid the price and qualified us to enter into the good land and enjoy all the riches of the all-inclusive Christ as our portion.
He has covenanted to us all that He is for our enjoyment.
We just need to stand on the blood of Christ and enjoy the riches of this all-inclusive One as our portion. Hallelujah!
We need to have Prayers that Express God’s Will, Returning the Will of God to Him in Prayer
In 1 Chron. 29:10-20 we see that we, as believers in Christ, need to have prayers that express God’s will. This portion of the word has a marvellous prayer, a prayer that is in a different realm, not in the realm of our needs or our desire.
Through this prayer the author praises Jehovah, from eternity to eternity, that His is the kingdom, He is exalted as head over all, all riches and glory proceed from Him and He rules over all.
It is a prayer of praise and glory to God, praising Him for what He is and what He has done.
In this universe there are three wills: the divine will (the will of God), the satanic will (the will of Satan, God’s enemy), and the human will (man’s will).
What God desires is that man’s will would be joined to Him so that man and God would be one for man to express God’s will in prayer, echoing it back to Him in prayer for His good pleasure (Matt. 6:10; 7:21).
![...You are blessed, O Jehovah, God of Israel, our Father, from eternity to eternity. Yours, O Jehovah, is the greatness and the power and the splendor and the victory and the majesty, indeed all that is in heaven and on earth; Yours, O Jehovah, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as Head over all. Both riches and glory [proceed] from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name. 1 Chron. 29:10-13](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/You-are-blessed-O-Jehovah-God-of-Israel-our-Father-from-eternity-to-eternity-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "...You are blessed, O Jehovah, God of Israel, our Father, from eternity to eternity. Yours, O Jehovah, is the greatness and the power and the splendor and the victory and the majesty, indeed all that is in heaven and on earth; Yours, O Jehovah, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as Head over all. Both riches and glory [proceed] from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name. 1 Chron. 29:10-13")
All spiritual work consists of four steps; first, the initiator is God, not man, and He has a will, for He intends to do something.
Second, God reveals this will to His children through the Spirit so that they know His will, His plan, His desire, and His aspiration.
In the third step, God’s children join themselves to God to return His will back to Him in prayer.
They simply echo His will back to Him, agreeing with Him that His will would be done.
As a result of man’s will agreeing with God’s will, He accomplishes His work; this is the fourth step.
We need to be those who open to the Lord and allow Him to reveal to us what is the desire of His heart, what does He want to do.
We need to be unveiled to see what is in His heart, and we need to allow Him to work Himself into us and infuse us with His desire and plan.
Once we are one with the Lord in this way, being attuned to Him in spirit to receive His burden and desire, we will simply echo His will back to Him.
Our prayer will not be initiated by the self or the flesh; we will simply have prayers that express God’s will, returning the will of God back to Him in prayer.
Such prayers that are initiated by God revealing His will to His people and His people echoing His will back to Him are what He desires, and these are prevailing prayers, executing God’s will on earth.
God can do so much more than what we think or can do, but He is waiting for us, His people to cooperate with Him by uttering prayers that express God’s will.
God is Almighty and can do anything He wants but in this age, He would not act alone; He wants man to cooperate with Him.
The responsibility of the church on the earth is to cooperate with God for His will to be done on earth.
For God to do something, first He puts His will within us through the Holy Spirit, and then we echo it in our prayer, uttering prayers that express God’s will.
When He hears our prayer, He will carry out His will, for He gains a will that is one with His will for Him to do what He wants to do.
Every part of God’s will need someone to carry it out through their prayer.
As we spend time with Him and open our being to Him both personally and corporately, the Lord puts a certain burden in us, a certain feeling.
As we pray this feeling, we simply utter prayers that express God’s will, and He can accomplish His will through our prayer.
The prayers that are according to God’s will are the prayers that originate from God.
May we be open to the Lord to receive the will of God in spirit, being impressed by the Holy Spirit with what He wants to do.
May we have prayers that are after God’s heart, prayers that have God’s will as the starting point.
May we be willing to receive from the Lord something concerning what He wants to do either in our personal life, in the church, or on the earth.
May we settle in our being that we are for the Lord, we live to Him, and we care for nothing else but His will on earth.
And may we be willing to utter the prayers that express God’s will; may we put aside our own impressions, burdens, and desires, and just utter what is on God’s heart that is revealed to us.
When we return and echo the will of God back to Him through prayer, He will do what we ask, for we ask in His name, that is, in the organic union with Him (John 15:7).
Only prayers that are initiated by God and echo what He has initiated have any spiritual value; we must learn to pray this kind of prayer (Eph. 6:18; 1 John 5:14-16).
We just echo what He initiates. We want His prayer to be our prayer.
We want our prayer to express God’s will and desire.
Such prayers are related to the carrying out of God’s will in His economy.
Yes, we need to make known to Him all our needs, our situations, and problems; but there is a higher prayer, a deeper prayer, which is the prayer that echoes God’s will back to Him.
We all are learning to pray in this way; we’re all learners, being discipled by the Lord and learning together in the church life to pray prayers that express God’s will.
We may even tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, we want to pray what is on Your heart. Grant us to have Your prayer. Make Your prayer known to us. Unveil us to see what Your will is. May we have an ear to hear what the Spirit is speaking and see what the Spirit is doing today. May our prayers echo the will of God back to Him. May our prayers express God’s will in prayer. Amen, Lord, be the initiator of our prayer. We want to have prayers that are initiated by God and are for the will of God. May Your will be done and Your kingdom come. We put ourselves aside, Lord, for we are here for You and for Your purpose. We live to the Lord. We do not live to ourselves. We want Your will to be done in our life. We join ourselves to You, dear Lord. Pray in us the prayers that carry out Your will on the earth. Lord, amen, Your will be done and Your kingdom come!
Praying Prayers that Express our Desire to have our Spiritual Border be Enlarged for us to Gain and Enjoy more of Christ!
The book of 1 Chronicles, especially the first chapters, has a lot of names; it lists the generations of the children of Israel.
If we are careless and just skim over, reading mindlessly just to do our Bible reading, we will miss very much.
In 1 Chron. 4:10 we are told that Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh that You would richly bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand would be with me, and that You would so keep me from the evil that it would not grieve me!”
And the verse continues by saying, “And God caused what he had requested to come to pass.”
On one hand, we need to pray prayers that express God’s will, prayers that are the echoing of God’s will on the earth so that His will be done.
This is the highest kind of prayer, for the Lord even guarantees that, if we pray in this way in His name, He will do it. Wow!
In 1 Chron. 4:10 we see a different kind of prayer; here we see the prayer of a seeker of the Lord who asks God to richly bless him and enlarge his border, to be with him and keep him from evil.
Such a prayer is pleasing to God, and He will carry it out.
Jabez called on God to enlarge his border; the enlargement of the border of the good land in his prayer signs the enlargement of the border of gaining Christ and the enjoyment of Christ, who is the reality of the good land (see Phil. 3:8-14).
We need to have such a desire, to have our enjoyment of Christ be enlarged and increased, and for the Lord to keep us from any evil.
What is this border? A border is anything that keeps us limited, narrow and constricted.
It is good to have a border, but the border needs to be enlarged.
We need to ask the Lord to enlarge our border.
We need to ask Him to enlarge and increase our enjoyment of Christ. We may realize that something is limiting us in our enjoyment of Christ.
We may aspire just like Paul to know Him and be found in Him, and to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
So we need to pray this to the Lord, asking Him to enlarge and increase our enjoyment of Christ.
We should not desire to steal someone else’s portion; rather, we should have an increased and enlarged enjoyment of Christ so that we may gain Him more.
![But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count [them] as refuse that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God [and] based on faith, To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, If perhaps I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead. Phil. 3:8-11](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/But-moreover-I-also-count-all-things-to-be-loss-on-account-of-the-excellency-of-the-knowledge-of-Christ-Jesus-my-Lord-on-account-of-whom-I-have-suffered-the-loss-of-all-things-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count [them] as refuse that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God [and] based on faith, To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, If perhaps I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead. Phil. 3:8-11")
This is something that the Lord is pleased to do.
He wants us to enjoy our portion of the good land, and He is pleased when we want to have our enjoyment of Christ be increased and enlarged.
The all-inclusive Christ is the reality of the good land; we all were allotted a certain portion of Christ, but our enjoyment of Christ needs to increase and be enlarged.
May we pray in this way, asking the Lord to enlarge the border of gaining Christ and enjoying Christ.
Furthermore, we need to ask the Lord to keep us from the evil one and protect us from evil.
In the pattern of the Lord’s prayer in Matt. 6, He said that we should pray to be kept from the evil one; it pleases God when we pray that He would keep us, protect us, and save us from the evil one.
May we not trust in ourselves and our ability to keep ourselves but ask the Lord to keep us, protect us, cover us, and save us from the evil one.
It is good to pray in this way personally to the Lord,
Lord Jesus, enlarge our border. Enlarge and increase our enjoyment of Christ as the reality of the good land. Enlarge our inner being to enjoy, receive, and contain more of Christ. Oh Lord, richly bless us and enlarge our border! We aspire to gain Christ, be found in Christ, and enjoy more of Christ in our experience! Oh Lord, may Your hand be with us and keep us from evil! Save us from the evil one. Bring us in an enlarged enjoyment of Christ as the reality of the good land, and keep us from the evil one and his evil schemes! We trust in You, Lord, and we look to You concerning an increased enjoyment of Christ and the covering from the evil one!
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 Ron Kangas in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, pp. 281-284, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 2, entitled, Crucial Aspects of Living in the Good Land after Returning from Captivity in Babylon.
- Further reading on this topic:
– Prayer – the burden of the Spirit, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 13: The Spiritual Man (2), Chapter 9, by Watchman Nee.
– Praying for God’s Will and for Our Spiritual Border to Be Enlarged, a portion via, The Church in Los Angeles.
– Three great principles in prayer, a portion from, The Prayer Ministry of the Church, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee.
– The relationship between praying in the Lord’s name and doing God’s will, a portion via, Lessons on Prayer, Chapter 20, 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)
– When, Lord, no words my burden can express, / My spirit with Thy Spirit deeply groans; / Not verbally I then my plea address, / But Thou dost pray within with words unknown. / I would inhale Thee, Lord, e’en as I breathe, / And eat and drink Thee as my life supply. / A deeper fellowship with Thee bequeath / That Thou express Thyself through me thereby. (Hymns #764 stanzas 3-4)
– 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)
About aGodMan
In 1 Chronicles 4:10 we have a particular prayer offered by one of the descendants of Judah: “Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that You would richly bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand would be with me, and that You would so keep me from evil that it would not grieve me!” God caused what Jabez had requested to come to pass. I hope that all of us would have such a prayer, a prayer that God would enlarge the border of the enjoyment of the good land, that is, enlarge the border of our enjoyment of Christ. Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, p. 18, by Witness Lee
In order to do something, God must first put His will within us through the Holy Spirit. He will only accomplish something after we have echoed it in our prayer. God operates through this procedure…He wants a will that is one with Him and that echoes Him. If God does everything without us, then man does not need to be here, and we do not need to know God’s will. Yet every part of God’s will needs someone to carry it out, and He wants our will to become one with His will. The first step in carrying out His will is to pray out God’s will and utter His will through our prayer. From this we see that prayer is a work. There is no work more important than this work because prayer is the speaking of God’s will and the accomplishment of His will. Brothers and sisters, we have to know that God’s will is uttered through our prayers. Therefore, prayers that originate from our self-will are useless prayers. Prayers that are according to God’s will originate from God. He conveys His will to us through the Holy Spirit, and then we return the same thought to Him through our prayer. Prayers that are after God’s heart have God’s will as the starting point; man is merely the transmitting and responding organ. Prayer that originates from ourselves has no spiritual value. Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, pp. 281-284
Dear brother, we need to pray prayers that are valuable to God.
Such prayers are the echoing of His will in prayer.
May we open to the Lord to receive a revelation of what He wants to do, and may we simply express His will în our prayer, so that He would carry out His will.
Amen Lord release the prayers for your move
Hallelujah for God’s spiritual work.
God’s work is governed by our prayers, for He has chosen to be bonded with us.
Therefore, He must wait for man to agree with Him before He can proceed with His intention.
Isn’t this just like any loving marriage? This is a great principle of God’s work: He wants man’s will to be joined to Him and to echo His intention.
So impressed brother that prayer is a “work”, wow, there is no work more important than this work because prayer is the speaking of God’s will and the accomplishment of His will!
Today we need the spirit of Jabez to call on the Lord, to pray that He would richly bless us, He would enlarge our enjoyment and gaining of Christ and His hand would be with us in keeping us from evil.
All this would be in accordance with His perfect will, revealed through His word, returning His thought and intention back to Him through our personal and corporate prayers.
God’s work is governed by prayer and only those prayers initiated by Him have any spiritual value for the bringing in of His Kingdom!
Amen Lord. keep us open to a revelation of what you want to do,so that we can express your will in our prayers and that your will be done.
Amen Lord Your will be done as in heaven, so also on earth!
This is the audio version of the agodman.com article entitled, Praying Prayers that Express God’s Will and our Desire to Enlarge our Borders (based on the HWMR on, the Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther – week 2 day 5).
The article is online at https://bit.ly/PrayExpressGodsWill
Listen to it via youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlgYcz8GO8I
Amen brother!
O Lord your kingdom is your rule in our lives. When we pray your kingdom come your will be done according to your word. O May we pray your prayers according to your word!
Amen Lord, make us Your echo chamber!
Ameen!!
Father may Your name be sanctified. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth. For Yours is the kingdom and the power, and the glory forever and ever, Amen!!!