All prevailing prayers – the prayers that can be counted effective before God – are the result of our abiding in the Lord and allowing His words to abide in us; in this way, His desire becomes our desire, and we will pray what He desires for Him to do what He wants to do.
We could say that prevailing prayers are those prayers that not only are heard by God but are also pleasing to Him and cause Him to act.
Merely speaking out our heart before God is not enough; simply praying about what we need and require is not something that may move His hand.
The source of prayer is God; God has a will, and He intends to do something according to His will, so that He may accomplish what He desires. The source of prayer is God’s will, what He wants to do.
We can’t pray properly until we know the will of God, for all genuine prayer begins with God’s intention according to His will.
When we exercise our spirit and come to the Lord, being emptied of our own opinions, desires, wishes, and feelings, the Lord can reveal His will to us through the Spirit for us to know His will.
God can do so many things – it seems that He doesn’t need us to do anything; however, He will not do anything unless he first reveals it to His servants, those who are open, unloaded, unveiled, and exercised before Him.
As we spend time with the Lord in the word and learn to wait on Him, He will reveal His will to us.
Then all we have to do is to return and echo the will of God back to Him through prayer; this is the work of the church – echoing and returning the will of God back in prayer, in prevailing prayers, so that God would do what He wants to do.
Once we see what is in God’s heart, once we realize what He wants to do, we simply pray that back to Him.
God wants to gain our will, the expression of our will in prayer, so that He may do what He desires.
God accomplishes His work according to His will when He gains a group of people on earth who are one with His will, uttering His will in prayer to Him.
He has been very much limited in what He wants to do on earth by His people; when His people do not pray, when His people don’t utter prevailing prayers according to His will, God has no way to accomplish what He desires.
But when His people exercise their spirit, abide in the Lord, allow the words of the Lord to abide in them, and utter effective prayers, the Lord can accomplish His will on earth, because He has a group of people who take the lead to agree with Him and release His will. May we be such ones today!
May the Lord have a way through us in our family, in our locality, in our society, in our country, and all over the earth! May we hinder the Lord no more!
May we no longer limit God from what He wants to do, but may we give Him the cooperation He needs!
All Prevailing Prayers are the Result of Abiding in the Lord and His Words abiding in us
What is a prevailing prayer? What does it mean for our prayers to be effective before the Lord? How can we see this in the Bible? How can we apply this to our experience?
We utter many prayers to the Lord daily; some are genuine cry for help prayers, while others are thanking Him, fellowshipping with Him, checking with Him about this and that, opening to Him about situations and people and things; are these prevailing prayers?
In John 15:4-5, 7 we see what the Lord Jesus speaks concerning prevailing prayers; He says that if we abide in Him and He in us, that is, His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we will, and He will do it for us.
First, we need to abide in the Lord; then, we need to allow His words to abide in us.
If we abide in the Lord and allow His words to abide in us, we can ask whatever we will, and it shall be done for us.
This is so simple yet it is such a mystery: how can the Lord assure us that He will do everything we ask of Him?
It is because He knows that, if we abide in the Lord and we allow His words to abide in us, our desires are mingled with His desires, His thoughts are imprinted on our thoughts, and what we ask will be something that issues from the Lord.
When we abide in the Lord and His words abide in us, we will not ask something for ourselves, our family, our benefit, or our prosperity; rather, we will desire the things the Lord desires, we will think of the things He thinks of, and we will ask what He is praying right now.
Such an asking is not an ordinary prayer but a specific prayer, and it is according to God’s will; it will therefore be answered by God.
The Lord needs the church to pray such prevailing prayers as the saints abide in the Lord and allow His words to abide in Him.
Something happens in us organically when we abide in the Lord and His words abide in us; just as the branch abides in the vine and allows the supply from the vine to flow in it and be expressed through it, so we abide in the Lord and receive His words (which are spirit and are life) and we express His desire, His intentions, and His thoughts.
We can be praying ones and function in prayer by abiding in the Lord and allowing His words to abide in us.
We need to not only read the Bible but eat the word by praying over the words in the Bible to have God’s desire and thoughts imprinted into us and mingled with us.
The written word of God has to become living word, a word that speaks to us, regulates us, adjusts us, and anoints us with the element of God.
When we allow the word of God to dwell in us richly, we are inwardly reconstituted with the element of God, and His feeling and desire become our feeling and desire.
We then understand what is on His heart, we are impressed with His intentions, and His desire is mingled with our desire; the result is that we utter as prayer something that He wants to do, and our prayers become prevailing prayers.
When we abide in the Lord and allow His words to abide in us, we touch God’s feeling and understand His desire.
After we touch God’s feeling and understand His intention, we will spontaneously have His desire that comes out of His words in us; the result is that His desire becomes our desire, what He wants is what we want, and we will pray according to this desire.
The Lord will surely answer this kind of prayer, and thus the will of God will be done as in heaven so also on earth (Matt. 6:10).
Such prevailing prayers is what the Lord needs today, and we can be the men of prayer who utter such prayers by simply abiding in the Lord and allowing His words to abide in us!
Lord Jesus, we want to abide in You and we allow Your words to abide in us richly so that we may touch You feeling and understand Your desire. May we be those who not only read the Bible but are infused with God’s intention, touch His feeling, and allow Him to mingle His being with our being. Lord, may Your word be spirit and life to us, and may we be mingled with You more and more each day! May Your desire become our desire so that we want what You wants and we pray according to Your desire so that Your will be done on earth as in heaven! Amen, Lord Jesus!
Practical examples of Living in Fellowship with the Lord and Praying what’s on His Heart for His will to be Done
When we speak of the church praying prevailing prayers we don’t speak of a duty of the church we we must fulfill, so we have to do it out of obligation.
In Psa. 32:8 it says that God guides us with His eyes; we as God’s people need to be in the index of the Lord’s eyes, being guided not merely by what He speaks or does or says, but by His countenance, His eyes.
If we live in fellowship with the Lord we will understand what the Bible means what it says that God guides us with His eyes.
We are not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding, so that God has to “bridle us” with a headstall, bit, and reigns, for us to understand His desire.
Rather, we are those who seek to remain in fellowship with the Lord, those who remain in His presence, those who draw near to Him, simply for us to abide in Him and His words to abide in us.
As we remain in the Lord’s presence and wait on Him, as we muse on His word prayerfully and are open to Him from within, we will spontaneously be able to understand His desire, His temperament, His disposition, and the principles of His doings.
In our spirit we catch a glimpse of the Lord’s eyes and thus spontaneously touch His feeling and understand His desire.
Then we just pray; we utter the Lord’s desire and will back to Him, and He is able to do it, because we agree with His will in prevailing prayers.
A good example of this is Abraham; he lived in fellowship with God, and he was so close to God that, when God wanted to do something as big as destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, He had to go to him and reveal it to him.
God knew that, when He revealed His heart to Abraham, He will gain an intercessor for His need.
God’s desire was not to destroy man but to save them; but He needed Abraham’s intercession to save and rescue Lot and his family from Sodom.
Another example is Samuel; he was a man according to God’s heart, and he had the Lord’s speaking; he knew the word of God, he had God’s instant speaking, and he prayed it back to God.
The result was that, even though the people of Israel rejected God, Samuel did not commit the sin of not praying for them; rather, he always prayed for them, and God had a way through him to anoint David, the king who was a man after God’s heart.
A practical example of living in the fellowship with the Lord and uttering prevailing prayers is in Acts 13:1-3, where five brothers came together to minister to the Lord, and He had a way to speak to them through the Holy Spirit.
The result was that the Spirit commissioned them for the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles; they then were sent by the Spirit in oneness with the church, and the Lord’s move was prevailing.
Daniel, similarly, read in the book of Jeremiah that the captivity of the children of Israel will last for seventy years, and he allowed the word of God to dwell in him richly.
The result was that he prayed daily for and toward Jerusalem, and his prevailing prayers broke through in the heavens to the point that there was a return from captivity.
May we also join to God in His word, abide in the Lord and let His word abide in us, and pray what He prays by being one with Him for His will to be done on earth!
Lord Jesus, we want to live in fellowship with You and remain in Your presence, drawing near to You and being with You in Your word. Infuse us with Yourself, Lord, as we read and pray Your word. Infuse us with Your thoughts, Your desires, and Your temperament and disposition. We join ourselves to Your desire through Your word. May You gain a group of people who understand God’s temperament, His disposition, and the principles of His doings. Gain the church praying prevailing prayers in oneness with You! Amen, Lord, anoint Your desire into us and imprint Your thoughts in our inner being. Keep us abiding in You and allowing Your words to abide in us for You to gain a praying people one with You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1959, vol. 4, “Lessons on Prayer,” ch. 11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 3, Praying for God’s Will to Be Done on Earth.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Pray with one accord in spirit, / Not according to our thought, / But alone by the anointing, / As the Lord has ever sought. / Pray with one accord in spirit, / By the cross deny the soul; / All desires and all intentions / Let the Spirit now control. (Hymns #779)
– Praying always in the spirit, / Thus expressing God’s desire; / Staying with the Lord in spirit, / We’ll be wholly set afire. / Praying always in the spirit, / Even groaning from within, / Thus we utter God’s intention / By the Spirit’s discipline. (Hymns #780)
– If you abide in Me and my words abide in you / Ask whatever you will and it will be done for you. / When we abide in the Lord and let His words abide in us, / We actually are one with Him as He works within us. / Then when we ask in prayer for whatever we will / It is not only we who are praying / He too is praying, in our praying. / This kind of prayer is related to fruit bearing / and will surely be answered. (Song on, Abide in Me, and I in you)
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