Our experience during times of genuine prayer enables us to touch the reality of the one new man; when we have times of genuine prayer, we are one spirit with the Lord, we live Christ, and we are the new man.
Our prayer has to be the genuine prayer. Ever since we were regenerated, we started to pray; prayer is something that even a child can do, and it seems so simple and easy, but much of our prayer may not be genuine.
Yes, our prayer may be sincere many times, but it may not be that genuine, the genuine kind of prayer.
Many times we pray off the top of our head, with words and expressions that we have learned already, having no substance; many times our prayer is not the real prayer.
If we check with a lot of our prayer times, whether individually or corporately with the saints, our prayer many times is less than genuine; it is to fill the time, to utter something from our head, even using some phrases that we are very familiar with.
Prayer, such a simple practice, can become a routine, and we may be “experts at praying” yet without uttering genuine prayers or living a prayer life.
We all need to build up a habit of prayer, a habit of contacting the Lord to absorb Him and fellowship with Him, a habit of praying ourselves into God.
May the Lord save us from praying prayers that are not genuine before God. May we all learn to pray the genuine prayer, and may we have many times of genuine prayer with the Lord and with the saints.
It is when we have times of genuine prayer that we really touch the Lord, we live Christ, and we are one spirit with the Lord; in such a time we spontaneously live Christ and are the one new man.
The Lord Jesus surely prayed the genuine prayer every time when He was with the Father; He didn’t just mouth words to fill the time but rather, before He did anything, as He was doing something, and after He accomplished a thing, He prayed with the Father consistently in a genuine way.
We all have the experience of having times of genuine prayer; we simply need to increase such times, have such times in a more often way, and build up a habit of prayer, even an atmosphere of prayer, a condition of prayer, so that we may touch and be in the reality of the one new man.
During our Times of Genuine Prayer we’re in our Spirit, we’re One with the Lord, and we Live Christ
How can we enjoy the Lord’s presence? How can we fellowship with the Lord? The only way is to pray, for when we pray, we enter into fellowship with the Lord and become conscious of the fact that we are truly one with Him in spirit, and He is one spirit with us.
The more we pray, the more we experience being one with the Lord, the more we enjoy His presence, the more we fellowship with Him, and the more we live Christ.
This means that we need to have a life of prayer, a habit of prayer; it is not easy to pray unceasingly, but we can build up a habit of having times of genuine prayer.
During times of genuine prayer, we are in our spirit and we are one spirit with the Lord; it is at these times that we live Christ (1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:20-21).
The surest time that we live Christ is when we pray; when we are not praying, it is hart to say whether we live Christ or not, but when we truly pray the genuine prayer, at that moment we must be living Christ.
Whether we are alone with the Lord in our time with Him or we do things in our daily living and take a minute or two to pray, if we are exercised to build up a habit of prayer, we will have the genuine kind of prayer, and even these short moments we will be one spirit with the Lord, thus living Christ.
There’s no way we can live Christ without prayer; this is why we need to pray unceasingly, breathe the Lord, so that we may live Him.
Our daily living should be the same as our experience in times of genuine prayer; this means that we need to carry our daily life with all its activities in the atmosphere of prayer.
As we go to work, as we raise up our children, as we are cooking a meal, and as we work at the office, we need to be in an atmosphere of prayer, having times of genuine prayer with the Lord.
As two men are working in the field and two women are grinding at the mill that the Lord comes, and one of them is taken while the other is left; if we are one spirit with the Lord as we do this and that, we are in a condition to be raptured by Him when He returns.
As we take care of the practical daily things, the human affairs, we need to be in genuine prayer with the Lord within; this makes our daily ordinary affairs part of our God-man living.
Even in our raising up children we can live the God-man life, and for this prayer is crucial; the only way is being in a state of prayer, in a condition and atmosphere of prayer that we build up day by day.
Our experience in prayer should become a model of our daily Christian life.
When we pray, we enter into fellowship with the Lord and become conscious of the fact that we are truly one spirit with Him and that He’s actually one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17); this is our experience during genuine times of prayer with the Lord.
When we have such times we find ourselves being one with the Lord; when we fellowship with the saints we may not find ourselves one with the Lord, but when we turn to Him and pray, when we have genuine times of prayer, we have the assurance we are really one spirit with Him.
This is how we can abide in the Lord; in John 15 the Lord told us to abide in Him and He in us – the way for us to abide in Him is by prayer.
This doesn’t mean that we drop all other things and just walk around praying; rather, we can have a praying life while we live our daily life.
It is possible for us to be one with the Lord, one spirit with Him, abiding in Him, and living Christ by living in this organic union with Him by prayer.
If we keep ourselves in a praying condition, we will be one spirit with the Lord and we will spontaneously live Christ; we will be outside of ourselves with our preferences, culture, and desires, and we will be in Christ, living Christ, and touching the reality of the new man.
Lord Jesus, we want to build up a habit of prayer by having times of genuine prayer with You all throughout the day. Save us from praying as a routine; save us from praying from our head and thus not praying real prayers. Lord Jesus, we want to fellowship with You and be one spirit with You as we practice having times of genuine prayer with You. Remind us again and again to pray; may we keep breathing You in and breathing ourselves out as we practice praying unceasingly in our daily life. Oh Lord, may our daily life with all its activities be in an atmosphere of prayer, and may we live in a condition of prayer all throughout the day!
When we Experience Genuine Prayer, we’re outside our Culture and Touch the Reality of the One New Man
If we keep ourselves in a praying condition, having times of genuine prayer with the Lord again and again, we will be outside of culture; we will be one spirit with the Lord, enjoying His presence and spontaneously living Him.
The way for us to live Christ and be one spirit with the Lord is by prayer; if we are in a praying condition, we are out of ourselves and we are brought into God.
Because we’re outside of ourselves when we pray in a genuine way, we are outside of our natural life and our natural man, and we’re outside of any ordinances, culture, differences, our disposition, our feelings, and our reactions.
Whenever we experience genuine prayer, we are outside of our culture; in particular, we are outside of our cultural opinion, which is a great hindrance in the church life (Col. 3:10-11).
The problem is our opinion; in ourselves we are a living and walking opinion, and when we’re with the saints, we are there with our opinions.
When we open our mouth, opinions come out, and even when we’re in the meetings, if we’re in the self and not in prayer, our spiritual opinion comes out.
We may try to get rid of our opinion, discard it, or repudiate it, but the more we do this, the more our opinion is alive, especially our cultural opinion; the only way to get rid of our opinions is to pray ourselves out of them.
Before we fellowship, we should firstly pray ourselves into God; after we finish our fellowship, we need to turn to the Lord again and be in an atmosphere of prayer.
The more genuine prayer we have, the more we will have the experience of being outside of our cultural opinion.
The more we touch the Lord in the spirit and exercise our spirit with the saints, having genuine times of prayer, the more we are one spirit with the Lord and also one with the saints.
When we talk, we may have arguments, but when we pray, we are one. This means that when we stop praying, we are out of the spirit; we need to keep on praying, keep contacting the Lord, and we will have the true oneness, thus touching the reality of the one new man.
When we pray with others in a genuine way, we are truly one in the praying spirit; then, we touch the reality of the one new man.
It is only by prayer that we can enter into the mingled spirit, the holiest of all, where God is; by prayer we enter into the realm of Christ, the realm where Christ is all and in all, and we touch the reality of the one new man.
In our times of genuine prayer with the Lord and with the saints we realize that the new man is constituted with Christ alone and that in this realm there are no differences of culture.
At such times of genuine prayer the death of Christ works within us in a prevailing way to terminate all the negative things in our being, and His resurrection power prevails in us.
As a result, we are actually one with Christ, identified with Him. Such an experience during our times of genuine prayer gives us a taste of the normal Christian life. When we remain in a praying condition, we’re outside our culture, ordinances, and anything negative, and we are in Christ, in the one new man!
Lord Jesus, we want to keep ourselves in a praying condition so that we may be outside of culture and be one spirit with the Lord! Amen, Lord, we want to enjoy Your presence and spontaneously live Christ, so we come to You again and again in prayer to touch You, be infused with You, fellowship with You, and be in the realm of Christ, the one new man! We admit that in ourselves we’re a living, breathing, walking opinion, and we cannot get rid of it; so we turn to You desperately again and again to experience times of genuine prayer with You and with the saints for us to live Christ, be one spirit with the Lord, and touch the reality of the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msg. 33 (Witness by Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 6, The Prayer Needed for the Reality and Practicality of the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Speaking nothing in pretense; / Ask according to the spirit, / Praying by the inner sense. (Hymns #784)
– Praying always in the spirit, / ’Tis the only way of prayer; / All the fulness of the Godhead / By this secret we may share. (Hymns #780)
– 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)
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