Real Prayer is to Express God as we Abide in the Lord, Let His Word abide in us, and Ask

Real prayer is coming to God, letting God speak within us, and expressing what God has spoken to us in prayer to Him; the meaning of prayer is first to absorb God and then to express God, speaking the words He spoke to us back to Him.

Such prayer is acceptable to Him, for He is able to do what He wants to do.

It is God who operates in us both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure; we simply need to be open to Him and allow Him to speak to us, and then utter back what He has spoken to us.

This means that we need to spend more personal and private time with the Lord in order to absorb Him and have His speaking.

We should not rush our time with Him; we should not hurry in our time with the Lord but rather, we should spend adequate time in His presence.

We cannot absorb God in an adequate way if we rush our time with Him; even though the world may demand more and more time from us, even though we have so many responsibilities and things to be taken care of, we need to still set time aside to spend with God.

It should be our daily experience that we come to the Lord at set times during the day to just open to Him, speak what is on our heart, and listen to what is on His heart.

This is how we grow in life, by opening to Him in our time with Him to absorb God.

The more we exercise our spirit to spend time in our spirit (not in our mind, emotion, and will) to enjoy the Lord, adore Him, praise Him, and thank Him, the more He gives Himself to us so that we may grow with the growth of God.

This takes a lot of practice and learning, for it is not by default that we are inclined to spend time with God.

May we be those who learn to enjoy Christ day by day both in our set times of prayer with Him and during the day so that we may grow with the growth of God.

As we spend time with the Lord, He infuses Himself into us, and the salvation of His countenance becomes the salvation of our countenance.

We can all testify that many times we come to the Lord and we are sad, burdened, and even puzzled; but the more we open to the Lord, read and pray His Word, and fellowship with Him in prayer, the more our countenance changes, for He saves us much more in His life.

If we spend a considerable amount of time in His presence to just enjoy Him, we are not only inwardly supplied but even our countenance changes: we become happy people, for we are made happy in Him.

Those who are in the Lord’s presence for a considerable amount of time have a shining face; their countenance is not fallen or sad but they are happy, for God makes them happy inwardly.

May we be such ones – may we practice coming to the Lord, again and again, to absorb God and be inwardly saved in His life.

Real Prayer is Coming to God, Letting God Speak within us, and Express to God what He Spoke to us; Prayer is to Express God

The meaning of prayer is, first, to absorb God; then, it is for us to express God.

We see this in Psa. 27:4 where David said that he desired, on one hand, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and on the other hand, to inquire in His temple.

For us to behold the beauty of Jehovah is for us to absorb God by spending time with Him in His word.

For us to inquire in His temple is for us to let God speak within us so that the words spoken to Him in prayer are not our words but His speaking within us, God’s expressions.

Today the word “inquire” has a different connotation, but in the Bible, it means to let God speak within us.

Today to inquire is to ask something; to inquire of God is to ask God something. But to inquire is much more: it is to come to the Lord and let God speak within us.

First, we come to the Lord and behold Him to absorb Him, and then we inquire; this is not to ask God to do something for us but to let Him speak. We may ask Him,

Lord, is there anything You would like to speak to me? What is in Your heart concerning me? What is in Your heart concerning the church in our locality? What is in Your heart and mind concerning the saints You put us with? Speak to me, Lord.

We may ask ourselves how will God speak to us; He will do it, but on our side, it is a learning to hear Him.

He may speak to us using the words of the Scriptures or He may anoint us within, with the understanding of what He would speak to us.

Prayer is not our carefully formulated words that we utter before God, neither is it merely our asking Him to do this or that based on our need or on what we think His need is.

Prayer is to express God; first, prayer is to absorb God, and second, it is to express God by speaking what He speaks to us and in us.

Many times, however, we are like Martha in John 11; Lazarus was dead, and when the Lord Jesus came, she told Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 11).

So the Lord told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live…Do you believe this?” T

o this, Martha replied something that is completely unrelated, showing that she didn’t even hear what the Lord asked her but spoke what was in her mind, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ…” (v. 27). She kept speaking and speaking and speaking, and the Lord’s words could not get into her.

May we be saved from coming to God thinking we know what to pray for and what He wants us to do.

May we just come to God, open to Him, and let God speak within us, let God express Himself instead of speaking our own words and expressing ourselves.

May we be saved from being like Martha in prayer, caring only to express ourselves, our thought, our knowledge, and our burden, but not letting God express Himself. Oh, Lord!

Real prayer is our coming to God, letting God speak within us, and expressing to God what He has spoken back to Him.

This is expressed in Psa. 27:8 where David said, “When You say, Seek My face, / To You my heart says, Your face, O Jehovah, will I seek”.

To pray is first to contact God and absorb Him, and then speak what He has spoken to us and in us.

We may think that we should pray for the church to be revived or for more people to be saved, but when we contact the Lord, He may touch us concerning our flesh, how much we live in the flesh, and how little we live in the spirit.

When we have the Lord’s leading and speaking within, we should forget about other things and simply express His words by speaking what He has spoken to us.

What He speaks to us, that’s what we utter back to Him. Not every prayer is real prayer; there are many prayers uttered to God that are not real prayers.

Sometimes in the prayer meetings of the church, the saints pray many words, long prayers, yet not utter real prayers.

Prayer is not that we speak first but that God speaks first; we don’t speak until He speaks. We speak after Him, for real prayer is to express God.

The more we spend time with God, the more we contact Him and absorb Him, the more we will not pray what we want to pray but what He speaks to us, for we express God in our prayer.

May we learn to pray real prayers to God.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn to pray real prayers by coming to You, allowing You to speak within us, and expressing in prayer what You have spoken to us. Cause us to realize that real prayer is to express God. Save us from merely praying for what we want, what we need, or what we think You want; may we first contact You and absorb You, and may we inquire of You. Amen, Lord, speak to us. Speak to us what is in Your heart concerning us, concerning our going on with You, and concerning the church. We simply seek Your face, Lord, and we want to echo in prayer what You speak within us. Be the initiator of our prayer. Be the One praying in us.

We need to abide in the Lord, let His Words abide in us, and Ask in His name what He asks in us

In the New Testament, there’s a verse that gives us a “blank check” for us to ask whatever we want to ask and God will give us.

This is in John 15:7, where the Lord says that, if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we will, and it will be done for us.

This verse presents three crucial points: first, we must abide in the Lord, second, we must let His words abide in us, and third, we can ask His name by Him asking in us.

First of all, we need to abide in the Lord; this means that we need to spend time to absorb God by contacting God in spirit.

We need to take time again and again to just contact the Lord, seek His face, and receive His rich infusion by being in His word.

Then, as we receive the Lord’s words, we need to let His word abide in us.

We shouldn’t just spend time to enjoy the Lord without any of His words abiding in us; rather, we need to abide in the Lord and let His words abide in us.

When we abide in the Lord and are in constant fellowship with Him, He speaks within us.

This is what we want, to have Him speak within us, to have His fresh and instant speaking.

Then, our asking will come out of His speaking to us. Our asking the Lord comes from His speaking within us, and we ask in oneness with Him for what is on His heart.

If we are in fellowship with the Lord and allow His words to abide in us, we will ask Him by speaking to Him what He has spoken to us.

May this be our experience day by day, not just asking Him the same things again and again but listening to Him, having His speaking within us through His word and His anointing, and asking in His name.

Our asking the Lord in our abiding in Him and His words abiding in us is actually His asking; He prays in our prayer, and whatever we pray is an expression of what He wants to pray. Real prayer is to express God.

May we really touch God, contact God and absorb God, so that He may speak within us.

May we learn to put ourselves aside, contact the Lord, and allow Him to speak to us in our fellowship with Him.

Then, may we pray according to His inner speaking, releasing in prayer what He has spoken to us inwardly.

To pray is for us to go to God, meet Him, draw near to Him, commune with Him, and absorb Him so that He can speak to us inwardly; then, we utter what He is speaking to us, for prayer is to express God.

When we pray to God with His words to us, our prayer expresses God.

When we as branches abide in Christ as the vine and we let His words abide in us, we are actually one with Him, and He works within us.

In this organic union with the Lord, whatever we ask of Him in prayer it will be His asking, for He prays in our prayer.

As we abide in the Lord and He abides in us, we can ask whatever we will, and it will be done for us, for the Lord Himself is asking in our prayer.

This kind of prayer will surely be answered.

May we learn to pray such prayer, realizing that real prayer is to express God and His desire that is infused into us through our time with Him!

Lord Jesus, we want to abide in You by remaining in fellowship with You all the time. Keep us in our spirit, dear Lord, so that we may abide in You and let Your words abide in us. Amen, Lord, speak in us, speak within us, and speak to us; we let Your words abide in us. May our asking You be from Your speaking within us. Speak in us, speak within us, and speak through us. Amen, Lord, we come to You, we want to meet You in spirit, commune with You, and absorb You, so that You may speak to us inwardly. May our prayer be an utterance of what You have spoken to us. Pray in our prayer, Lord. May our asking be in the abiding in the Lord and His words abiding in us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by bro. Mark Raabe on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 95 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 4, entitled, Prayer to Absorb God and to Express God by Praying to God as a Friend So That We Can Co-work with God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / List’ning earnestly to Him; / Be impressed with His intentions, / Yielding to Him from within. (Hymns #784)
  – Lord, in Thy presence silent I would be, / That in the inmost I to Thee may come; / I would not in my own way pray to Thee, / But let Thy prayer in me my prayer become. (Hymns #764)
  – 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)