Well, by the grace of God, we come to this last session. It is called the question-and-answer period.
Now, brothers and sisters, whatever questions there may be, strictly and really, there is only one answer: the Lord, He is the answer.
So I do hope that when we try to answer the particular question that is asked, the impression of the answer left with brothers and sisters will not be on the technical level, but will really give a spiritual understanding and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this is our prayer.
Now, I have two questions. One question is pretty long, but I think the answer is short. I will try to read it. It is written in very small letters, and my eyesight is not that good.
The question is: “In an ascended life, as we draw close to the Lord during the day, are we to practically expect the Lord to show us each and every decision?”
Our Christian life is supposed to be an ascended life. It is a life of heaven upon earth. But it is not an unnatural life. I would say it is supernaturally natural.
In other words, we who are the Lord’s, who have this heavenly, reigning life in us, are not to live in a very strange, even nervous, kind of way. God wants us to be natural, but supernaturally natural. That is to say, we are not to live by our natural life, but by that supernatural life that is in us. Yet, when that supernatural life is being lived, it is very natural.
Now look at our Lord Jesus. I think He is our example. He lived a life of heaven upon earth. He always carried with Him that heavenly atmosphere. Wherever He was, there was heaven on earth.
And yet, you find there was not a tense, nervous, technical kind of life. Our Lord Jesus lived a very natural life, but it was supernaturally natural.
No doubt, every moment of His life was lived in the presence of His Father. The Father was always with Him, and He was always with the Father. Yet you do not find that He was always on His knees. Whether He was walking, talking, working, or on His knees, it was the same to Him. He lived in the very presence of His Father, and He had no other thought but to do the Father’s will.
But at times, you do find that He spent time in prayer. After a whole day’s work, He rested, but He got up before the day dawned and went out to pray. When He was to choose the twelve apostles, He prayed a whole night. And when He went to the garden of Gethsemane, how He agonized, travailed in prayer.
So, in other words, you find in the life of our Lord Jesus that we can say He prayed without ceasing, in the Spirit. Now that is the kind of life that we should live.
So, brothers and sisters, as long as you live a consecrated life—that is to say, you have given your life completely to the Lord and allowed Him to rule over you—and if you are in your spirit in constant communion with the Lord, then you just go ahead and live naturally.
For instance, when you are eating breakfast, after you give thanks to the Lord, go ahead and eat. After you have the first serving, you do not need to stop and pray, “Do I need a second serving? Will the Lord tell me whether I should have it or not?” Most likely, He will not. But He will point you to how you feel in your stomach.
So, brothers and sisters, just remember: you do not need, as it were, to ask the Lord to make decisions for you in every small matter. You are His. His life is in you. You are in touch with Him. Just live naturally.
Wherever you begin to be off in some way, the Spirit of God—the life of Christ in you—will begin to remind you. When you are reminded, obey. Now that is all you need to do.
I would say, brothers and sisters, that this is probably a misunderstanding among God’s people. They think they have to live that extraordinary life in a very extraordinary way. But this extraordinary life is to be lived in a very ordinary way.
Of course, when you come to any big decisions, no doubt we should spend time before the Lord to seek Him, lest in any way we may be misled. So that is also very important.
The continuing question is: “The Lord has granted us wisdom and knowledge to think wisely as well. How are we to balance between making decisions based on knowledge and experience and seeking the Lord?”
First of all, I suppose this wisdom and knowledge speaks of spiritual knowledge—that knowledge which really comes from life. In other words, there are two kinds of knowledge.
One kind of knowledge is from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We would say it is soul knowledge, or mental knowledge. There is another kind of knowledge that comes from the tree of life.
Because in John 17:3:
This is eternal life, to know Thee the only true God,
and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
This is eternal life. So eternal life is knowledge, but it is a different kind of knowledge. It is life knowledge: knowledge that comes from God, knowledge that comes from the Spirit of God—an inward, experiential, full knowledge.
If the question means that you have that knowledge, then of course you do not need to seek to know the mind of the Lord anymore, because you have already known. The reason why we seek the mind of the Lord is because we do not know, or we are not sure.
But once you are sure, and you have that knowledge, what you need to do is to do it—not just to know, but to do it. That is all you need to do. If you try to pray and seek again, you will be confused.
So, brothers and sisters, what is important is this: are you sure that the knowledge you have of the will of God is from life? If you are sure of that, you do not need to seek anymore, because you have already found it. All you need to do is practice it.
The third question is: “If I make a decision based on knowledge and experience, but my attitude remains reliant upon and trusting in the Lord, is it okay? If I feel accused that way, is it from the enemy?”
Now, I think if anyone really has this life knowledge from God, knows God’s will, and keeps an attitude of trusting and relying upon the Lord, of course it is okay.
If, under that kind of condition, you are still being accused, that is from the enemy.
Now, brothers and sisters, we need to have a sensitive conscience, but not a weak conscience. Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish between a sensitive conscience and a weak conscience.
A sensitive conscience is a conscience that is tender and sensitive to the voice of God. We need to have that kind of conscience, because we cannot walk rightly if our conscience is dull or if we carry an evil conscience.
In order to have faith, there must be a good conscience, void of offence toward God and man. So our consciences need to be sensitive.
The way to cultivate a sensitive conscience is this: whenever the Spirit of God touches our conscience, learn to respond immediately. If you cultivate that kind of habit, your conscience will become very sensitive, and that is good.
But, on the contrary, we do not need a weak conscience. A weak conscience not only hinders our walk with the Lord, but it is very easily under the enemy’s accusation.
How can we be delivered from a weak conscience? We are delivered from a weak conscience by a knowledge of the truth.
You know, like in Romans, we find some people who only eat vegetables and not meat. Their conscience is weak, thinking that eating meat is wrong. With such a conscience, one needs the knowledge of the truth. If he knows the truth, the truth will set him free.
So, with a weak conscience, what we need to do is try to help that weak conscience, strengthening it by the truth so that he will not be under accusation.
Whatever it may be, brothers and sisters, if you feel that you are being accused, I think it is a proper thing to do: go to the Lord and inquire. If you go to the Lord and inquire, the Lord will certainly show you if there is any loophole somewhere so that the enemy can accuse you.
If you seek the Lord honestly and the Lord does not show you anything special, then just claim the blood of our Lord Jesus over your conscience, and the enemy’s accusation will be stopped.
So, in other words, you will find that, so far as our walk before the Lord is concerned, if we really are in touch with the Lord and abide in Christ, that is the secret. That is the short answer.
Here is a very short question. In a sense, we cannot quite figure out what the question really is. But anyway, I think the question is this: “When we give permission to the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ, is it a passive or active position we take?”
Again, I have to say: it is an actively passive position.
God will never do anything against our will. God can do anything, but He binds Himself in this: He refuses to do anything without our will. He is the One who created us with a will, and because He created us with a will, He honors it. He will not violate it.
God may persuade us, but He never forces us to do anything against our will.
The important thing is this: the Holy Spirit is waiting to transform us and conform us to the image of Christ. But He cannot start that work until we actively will to let Him do it.
Now this is consecration. Why does the Bible say, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice”? You present your body. Your body is already redeemed by the Lord. It is not yours; it is His. Yet He still wants your permission, as it were, to allow Him to use that body. That is cooperation.
Before the Holy Spirit can begin His work of transforming us from glory to glory according to the image of God’s Son, He has to have our permission. We have to exercise our will actively.
You cannot just sit back and say, “Well, if the Lord wants to do anything in my life, He will do it. I will just let Him do it,” but in a very passive, uncooperative way. No, He will not do it. You have to cooperate, and your cooperation is expressed by your will. So this is active.
That is the same reason why the Lord said, “If anyone wants to be My disciple, you have to deny yourself.” To deny yourself is a matter of will. You tell yourself, “I do not know you.”
It is an active position you take. But after you have taken that active position, then, in a sense, you are in a passive position. In other words, you put yourself in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and He will begin to work in your life.
But during the process of transformation, you still need to actively, passively cooperate. This is the mystery of the working of God.
Thank God, that is how He respects us, and how He desires us not to be just automatons, but living creatures. That will give Him much more glory.
So I think probably that should be the answer. But again, I say, the answer is the Lord. Thank God.
Well, I am glad we are all actively passive, right? Supernaturally natural. I am afraid I do not have a phrase to go along this route.
My problem is, I start out with the first question here, which is actually Ernie’s question. I do not know why they gave it to me. Ernie made a comment: “Evangelism is the overflow of being filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The first question is: “If evangelism is the overflow of being filled with the Holy Spirit, what are we to do in the meantime about fulfilling the Great Commission?”
Actually, I praise God for this brother or sister, because this person has a burden from the Lord. God so loved the world. He really loves the world, and He sent His Son to die for the world. This evangelistic burden, of course, comes from the Lord Himself.
Perhaps we could share a little light regarding this question, because it touches a few very important issues. Let me start at the end and go back to the beginning: fulfilling the Great Commission.
Let us turn to Matthew 28:18.
All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you:
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
This is called the Great Commission. Generally speaking, this should be the burden of every believer: that the gospel would go out throughout the whole world.
But could I say specifically that, without splitting hairs, this was a specific commission to His own apostles. This was a sending out to His own, and these men understood it literally and took it literally. We find that the twelve apostles went out into the world.
Thomas, we believe, went to India. Church tradition tells us of different disciples and apostles going into Asia Minor, Cappadocia, and all over the then-known world preaching the gospel. They were fulfilling this commission.
If we add Acts 1:8:
But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
This is indeed a great commission. As a matter of fact, it is impossible with man. But the Holy Spirit set these men out and sent them abroad even to the uttermost parts of the earth, filled with the Holy Spirit. Much ground was gained in the kingdom of God by these men going out.
This is a specific commission. It is generally the burden of all Christians to see this gospel go throughout the world, but there are specific people whom the Lord is raising up.
Some people feel guilty because they are not going to India or Africa preaching the gospel. They feel, “Well, I am just a schoolteacher somewhere, and I am not being obedient.” But in Matthew 9, we find how this general burden should find its specific release.
In Matthew 9:36-38:
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them,
because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd.
Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest.
Of course, if the Lord calls you to go out into the world and preach the gospel, you should do so. But I think the burden we all should feel and take up as a matter of prayer is that the Lord would raise up harvesters to go into the field.
Thank the Lord, we all know some such brothers. Many of you know that I have been to Russia twice in the last year. I thank God for meeting some brothers who truly are in the harvest, working by faith, serving God, preaching the gospel, and seeing many people saved.
God has opened the door in Russia right now. Many people are being saved. Thank God He has raised up workers. I am praying that more workers will be raised up in that field to preach the gospel. That is my response.
I do not feel called to move to Russia. I do not know the language. But I am willing to go. I do feel that we need to pray for laborers to be raised up, especially where we see there is a hotspot—simply, an open door somewhere. We should pray, “Lord, raise up laborers.”
Perhaps we do not go, but we ask for laborers to be raised up. When we hear of them or know of them, we help support them through prayer in any way we can. I think this is an important part of this burden.
Sometimes the church as a whole makes people feel guilty about this. Rather, we should feel burdened and pray about it: “Lord, raise up laborers, especially where the harvest is ready and ripe.”
We notice the matter of being filled with the Holy Spirit, as we read in Acts 1. This brings us to a second burden. The question asks, “If evangelism is the overflow of being filled with the Holy Spirit, what are we to do in the meantime?”
This points to something regarding evangelism in the church as it now exists. There is a problem with evangelism in the church as a whole. The church needs to be recovered to a life that testifies to our Savior Jesus, and people will be saved day by day.
In the book of Acts, the spiritual church simply manifested that they had been saved, pointed to the One who saved them, and people were added day by day. The problem with the church as a whole today—and perhaps even our fellowships today—is that our spiritual level of life is so low regarding the transparent testimony of Jesus Christ that people who come into our midst, or hear the gospel in our midst, do not see Jesus, and they are not saved.
This is why it has been true throughout church history that what have been called church revivals were times when the most people were saved. But do you know where the church revival actually was? It was when the saints got right with the Lord. Then people got saved.
Consider the Welsh Revival of the early twentieth century. It began when Evan Roberts, his friends, and young people began to stand up in the churches of Wales and say, “Obey the Holy Spirit.” The saints began to confess their sins, pray for one another, and fall on their faces before God, repenting for the low state of the church.
Because of that, thousands of people were saved. People immediately saw, “This is real. Jesus is really alive. Look at Him among the Christians.”
So often in church history, when the church came back in righteousness, holiness, love, and first love, Jesus was there, very real. The unbeliever who came in would fall down, saying, “Jesus is in your midst,” and be saved.
This is how people are saved day by day in our assembly lives. The Lord is trying to recover His church to its first love, to its fullness in the Spirit, to a place where Jesus can be seen in such a way that people will be saved.
I remember the first time I went deeply into Tamil Nadu, India. We travelled by a four-wheel-drive jeep because there were no roads. We preached the gospel, and, of course, you gather a crowd when you are a big white guy like me. While the doctors did their work, I preached.
There were amazing numbers who came and listened. These people in that remote place heard the gospel, and it really surprised them. Do you know why it was surprising? Because in their little town there was a Church of India congregation that basically everybody despised.
These people were so dead and so proud. All they did was tell everybody else they were going to hell, but they never preached the gospel and never showed any love to the village. So people were surprised that Jesus was a loving Person, because all they saw was this church.
The doctor said to me, “This is the biggest barrier to evangelism we have in India: the church that now lives in India. If there were no church here, people would get saved. But they have to go around the church to get saved.”
Sorry, I named the group, because it could be any group that is not living a testimony. It is a shame, is it not, when evangelism has to say, “Forget about the church; just look at Jesus”? It was never meant to be that way.
When we have the burden, “Let us go out and witness; we should preach the gospel more,” this is a burden that comes from the Lord. But then He says, “Is the church here an incubator where new babies can come?”
It is often said by evangelists that if they go to preach a revival, a gospel service, or a week of gospel meetings in a church that is an incubator, the Lord brings many people to Jesus. What do they mean? They mean a church that is warm, loving, and provides a nurturing environment.
But when an assembly is the kind that says, “You will have to make it on your own. If you get saved, come and tell us. If you have problems, seek the Lord and let us know. We probably cannot help you; we are all too busy”—that is hardly an incubator.
When people get saved, they have twenty-nine problems per day, and they have a phone number—yours. You have the answer to twenty-nine problems today.
The Lord wants to recover the church so that it is truly a loving church, one that receives people and is merciful to people who still have habits, problems, and ways of dress.
Sometimes I see young people who have newly been saved. They love the Lord, but their bodies are almost totally tattooed, and they have earrings all the way down. The temptation is to preach against earrings. But what they need is mercy right now. Help them grab hold of the Lord, and watch the earrings go. Watch Him cover the tattoos.
There is a need for recovery in the church to a real testimony of the Lord. Then we will find, again as in the book of Acts, that people are saved day by day. The Lord added day by day because He had a nurturing family there.
Can you imagine what it was like in those early days? People were saved at the temple, where an apostle would stand and speak of the things Jesus did, the healings He performed, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. As they preached the gospel, people would be saved.
But also, they would go back to the houses and invite neighbors in, along with brothers and sisters, to have a meal. Then they would break bread together and explain what they were doing. They would tell their guests, “Jesus has saved us, and we are so glad. Is there something we can pray for? We notice your child is sick.”
The next thing you know, the family who was just visiting, a gospel friend, gets saved. This is how the church was: in the home and in the meeting place, there was the gospel going on. The Lord wants to recover that.
We need to pray, “Oh Lord, recover the church.” If, where you fellowship, you very seldom have a gospel meeting, or you have such ineffective ones, we should look at the temperature and pray, “Lord, recover our hearts. May we really love the Lord with all our hearts, and may we really love the world.”
But in the meantime, what do we do? The state of the corporate cannot overwhelm our personal faithfulness. We are not merely called to be witnesses; we are witnesses.
The Lord has made us witnesses by the very fact that He saved us and came into our lives to dwell. Many of us are pretty much unwitting witnesses. We do not even realize that people where we work are watching us very closely.
They ask, “What is that black, flexible book that person carries to work? Why do they sit over in a corner and bow their head before eating lunch instead of going down to the bar where everybody has lunch?” They are watching.
The Lord has sent you and me out into the world, wherever we live, to bear testimony to the hope that is within us—whether at work, eating lunch with coworkers, being in our neighborhood, having a barbecue, and inviting friends.
We are not supposed to say, “Well, fellowship is in such distress right now that it would not do me any good to witness to anybody anyway.” No. The Lord wants us all to be faithful.
You may not be an evangelist. I do not think most of us are evangelists in the sense of having that actual calling. But we are all witnesses.
The Lord wants to use your life, your willingness to pray with someone who is not a Christian, and your willingness to answer Bible questions for someone who asks you for a reason for the hope within you. We should always be prepared to be a witness and aware that we are a witness—not in an unnatural way.
Thank the Lord, sometimes He sends us out as Christians. We may take a trip to Haiti, minister there, help build something, and witness to people. It is wonderful to go to Haiti. But how about our own backyard—New Jersey—where you work and live?
The Lord says, “Do not use the church as an excuse. Be a faithful witness, and the Lord will use you, and people will be saved.”
It is amazing how willing and able the Lord is to engineer circumstances so that somebody who is a willing witness meets somebody who is a needy sinner. If we truly are willing witnesses, you watch: the engineering hand of God starts to bring people around who need your help.
We must be willing to be witnesses. Always sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, and be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you. That is my answer to this question.
The next two questions have to do with prayer. Here is a simple but wonderful question: “How do I know I am praying in the Spirit and in truth?”
This has some reference to something I read while ministering in Ephesians 6. Let us look there for a moment.
Ephesians 6:17-20 says:
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,
and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth,
to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am an ambassador in chains.
There you see the phrase, “Praying at all seasons in the Spirit.”
There are two answers that have often been given that are incomplete, though they may have some element of truth.
Some people say praying in the Spirit means praying in tongues. That is not accurate, although it could be part of praying in the Spirit for someone who has the gift of tongues.
In 1 Corinthians 14, when Paul talks about his use of the gift of tongues, he says that he prays with the Spirit and with the understanding. He prays in a tongue, and he prays with understanding in Greek, Hebrew, or whatever language he is using.
So, for someone who has the gift of tongues, that is one way to pray. If it is done aright, one may be praying in the Spirit. But that is not what this phrase means.
Secondly, some think that a person praying in the Spirit is praying with zeal—out loud and fervently. They think that praying in the Spirit means praying in your spirit, and that the louder and more zealously you pray, the more you are praying in the Spirit.
Praying in the Spirit may involve a heavy burden, a shout of praise, or something done under a divine unction. But do not forget that truly to pray as the Lord wants us to pray, we pray in our spirit and through our soul, which involves our mind, emotions, and even body.
A person can pray in the Spirit in a whisper as easily as he can pray with a shout. Volume has little to do with it. The purity of the prayer itself is the key.
What does praying in the Spirit mean? First of all, it means, in contrast to praying merely with your mind, that you are not simply praying religious prayers.
Many people have a religious background, and Paul is exhorting them to move beyond a level where they are praying naturally with their minds. You can pray supernaturally naturally with your mind, but it must be led by the Spirit. It does not mean that we pray foolish prayers.
Some people are great at natural praying because they have learned it religiously. They have memorized prayers and things they often pray, but sometimes the Spirit of God is not even involved.
Whether this means praying in your spirit or praying in the Holy Spirit—translations vary—I tend to say it means that somehow we are engaged with this indwelling Spirit who is helping us to pray.
Having said that, we enter into a whole dimension of sensitivity in prayer that the Lord has to develop in our lives.
“How do I know I am praying in the Spirit?” No guarantees. You do not always know, in one sense. If the question is, “How do I know if I am praying in the flesh or in the Spirit?” there are signs one way or the other. But the whole thing starts with your attitude as you begin to pray.
Are you dwelling in the Lord? Are you resting in the Lord? Then probably you are praying in the Spirit.
We are talking about individual prayer here. Thank God, we have an anointing with Him. When we pray, if we will just wait a moment and rest our soul back until we sense the Spirit prompting us, then we begin to pray according to that prompting.
This is a mystical thing, but I am not talking about something strange. If we just hang back for a minute and do not jump right in with our minds, the Spirit begins to give us a sense—perhaps a burden, perhaps some words. Praying in the Spirit is following that anointing as we pray for various matters.
There is this life inside us. In the end, we have to confess that it is a little mystical. But there is a life inside, and this life wants to lead us in our prayer in the Spirit. If we follow this life, we find ourselves praying in the Spirit—perhaps more effectually and more briefly.
One of the key elements in this whole matter is praying according to the Word of God.
We cannot escape the fact that it all has to do with this abiding presence and our abiding in Him. Listen: “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
This person has come into the Lord and is abiding in the Lord. The Lord has given him a living word in his heart, and now he is praying according to that living word. God says, “I will answer that.”
There is an inward spiritual relationship in which you actually experience this life of abiding, and Him abiding in us.
As I say to young people, it is sort of like the old sonar systems on submarines in World War II. They would send out a sound wave—“bong”—and when it hit a submarine or boat, it gave an echo back—“bing.”
Every Christian life should have that kind of response.
You come to the Lord in the morning, consecrate your life before Him, and say, “Oh Lord, I am so thankful that I can live in You. I come to You, Lord, right now, and I say, ‘Lord, be my life.’” Then there is a little “bing” that comes back. It means you received a message.
Then you say, “Lord, I want to start today. I do not just want to give You the usual baggage—‘Give us this day our daily bread, and keep me from the evil one.’ I want to go to the Word now. Would You make it living for me?”
As you open the Word, you are not reading merely for knowledge or because you have three chapters to read in order to get through the Bible in a year. You are reading and waiting for the response. You will get the response. It is the miracle of the living Word of God within you.
If you are trying to read the Bible through in a year, God bless you—do it. But initially in the day, when you first arise, give your life to the Lord and open a psalm. Do not try to break the psalm down into four parts and go into David’s history. Read it and wait for the living word, because it may be the living rhema you need for that day.
Then you take that rhema back to the Lord: “Oh Lord, I just read this promise, that if I abide under the shadow of Your wings, You will protect me. Lord, I feel I need Your protection so much today, and I take that as my provision.”
You see, you have just done some praying, and you have prayed in the Spirit.
There is an art in this matter that has to be developed. It is developed as you become aware of this inward life within. He is more than willing to give you that registration of peace when you are praying.
You pray and sense this peace: “Ah, Lord, that is it.” Or you pray and feel His life leading you forward in a matter.
My wife and I are in the process of moving. It has been quite an experience, because we took a little step and thought the Lord said, “Yes.” We took another little step, and I thought the Lord said, “Yes.” There is some kind of responding life there.
Sometimes you take a little step and feel a little, “Wait.” Are you sensitive to this? Go, wait, stop—just wait. That is not clear. Well, let us wait.
That sounds very spooky. Not everybody senses this mystical side. But many people who really pray in the Spirit bathe themselves in the Word of God. They come to the Lord, and the Lord begins dropping in a verse from here and something from there.
They pray in the Spirit without having some kind of inward ping-pong thing going on. Yet they sense that the Word is giving them life in a particular way. As they pray for a person, a particular Scripture comes into their mind, and they are praying in the Spirit.
So I do not want everyone to feel, “I have to be a mystical ping-pong player.” But there does need to be a sensitivity developed in our lives.
After all, this is where we commune with God—in our spirit—and we need to learn to exercise the spirit. Perhaps sometimes you step out and hear a little response back, but it was not the will of God. You will learn.
Especially when the response is a rhema from the Word of God, you are seldom going to go far astray. It is because you are abiding in Him.
So here is my prior question to the person who asks, “How do I know if I am praying in the Spirit?” Do you know that you are abiding in Him? Then pray, and you will discover this life and this way of prayer as the Lord helps us all grow in it together.
There is a whole corporate side to this. Let me bring it in by reading the third question: “In seeking an open heaven, how do we hear His voice? Our prayers often feel like a one-way conversation, without a word back, especially in difficult times of transition and difficult decisions when action is called for and we must know our Lord’s direction so as not to come out from His covering and take independent action.”
Here is somebody serious about prayer. How do we see this open heaven? How do we pray at all times in the Spirit when we are together corporately?
The context of Ephesians 6 is probably corporate prayer. How do saints pray together, especially when they gather and take up matters of spiritual warfare? There is Paul in jail; let us pray for him. These burdens come up. How do we pray at all times in the Spirit? How do we pray under an open heaven and receive answers back?
On the corporate level, there has to be ping-pong as well. Here is the problem with our corporate prayer meetings: we throw a lot of stuff up in the air, and nothing comes down. As we pray up, something should come down.
In our individual lives, when we pray, we may pray and then wait. But in the corporate prayer meeting, we have a list of ten things, and we tend to shoot them up and go to the next one. There is not much time for waiting in the corporate meeting.
It is hard to wait in a corporate meeting, to be honest with you. If we said, “Lord, we want to bring Paul’s imprisonment before You right now. Let us just wait before the Lord,” suddenly you might hear silence. But it will be broken by the brother who cannot stand more than one minute of silence before chirping in.
It is awfully hard to wait on the Lord at a corporate prayer meeting. It is something we need to learn to do.
What does it practically come down to? There need to be brothers and sisters who realize that a prayer meeting does not effectively happen without preparation.
When we all go into a prayer meeting unprepared and simply ask, “What is the list tonight?” we are very likely not going to hear anything back.
But suppose two or three brothers or sisters take the matters in the assembly life, national life, and global matters before the Lord during the week, waiting with these matters before the Lord.
Those who have a calling to prayer need to do this. There is no gender here. Brothers often bring the agenda for the prayer meeting in most assemblies, but sisters are often very sensitive to prayer, and we need to refer to them.
If three people in an assembly got together a day before the prayer meeting and asked, “What is our burden? We are praying for Israel, but are we sensing anything?” those who wait before the Lord will begin to receive something back.
They may receive a Scripture that helps us in prayer. They may have an impression that we should pray specifically for something. When we come to the prayer meeting with a Scripture someone has found and a burden someone has sensed, we do not just bring information; we bring burdens that can be responded to.
Sometimes we come together and say, “The situation is Israel and Palestine. We need to pray for Israel.” That is a fact on our plate, but how do we pray?
What if a brother says, “Sister Margaret called us. She has been praying about Israel, and she feels we need to pray against the principalities and powers that are trying to do such and such”? Then we have a specific thing to pray about in the matter of Israel.
Otherwise, people jump on the bandwagon with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian opinions, and all sorts of ideas. No, we may pray for peace and blessing, but what if we actually have a burden to pray for regarding Israel?
That will take preparation. Somebody needs to have thought about it, waited before the Lord on it, and received something. Then suddenly we are praying in the Spirit. We find ourselves praying effectively because we actually have a burden to present.
Sometimes the burdens of crises or things we are praying about are very clear. Sometimes they are not clear. How exactly do we pray for this thing? Somebody needs to have climbed up into the heavenly places.
We might wish that we could all gather corporately, wait on the Lord, and see something together. But initially, usually somebody needs to have done their homework. When that happens, we hear from the Lord.
Lance Lambert came from Halford House. I went to Halford House on a number of occasions and was privileged to be there sometimes when they were in their praying mode.
Especially at the beginning of each year, they would have a prayer week. They prayed all week, every day, coming together. Having been there a number of times, I got to see behind the scenes of what went on.
It was the most phenomenal corporate prayer meeting I have ever experienced. Every time I joined with them in prayer, I sensed the heavens open. But I found out what was going on behind the scenes.
Lance would see something in The London Times, cut it out, and take it to about four prayer-warrior sisters. There were single sisters in their sixties, veterans in prayer who could hear from the Lord.
They would call one another and say, “What do you think about that situation?” “Oh yes, we need to pray about that. Pray about it today and get back to me. What do you think?”
There was a group of perhaps six people who always prepared before the prayer meeting. When they came in, they had clippings, global concerns, letters from brothers and sisters in Nepal, specific needs, and perhaps someone in the hospital needing prayer.
They came with a burden. When they presented it to the saints, not all the saints had the same spiritual capacity. They were not all intercessors in a place of spiritual ascendency, seeing things from a heavenly perspective.
But if someone could bring a matter into the prayer meeting with a heavenly perspective, the saints were willing to say, “Amen, let us pray.”
They would share the agenda and say, “We have these seven things, but we really feel the Lord wants us to take up the first three. The other matters we will cover if the Lord leads.”
Then they would all get down on their knees and pray—binding and loosing, taking hold of things, bringing out Scriptures related to the situation at hand. It was a prepared prayer meeting, full of the Spirit, and it was wonderful.
This is in contrast to so many of our prayer meetings, which frankly are not prepared at all. We say, “Okay, who has something?” Someone mentions their son’s Little League team having trouble raising money for a trip to California. Soon we have a whole list of things, but where is God’s burden tonight?
What are we really sensing? “I do not know. Do you know?” “No, I do not know.” This is what the brothers are saying. Then we pick the things that sound most spiritual: “Let us pray for Israel,” even though we have no idea where we are going with that one.
How do we hear from the Lord? With preparation and waiting on the Lord, we hear from the Lord. Somebody receives a Scripture; somebody receives a word; we pray that back. There is a witness in the assembly.
There is a lot of light we gain in the prayer meeting. God is merciful. We come into the light, see many things in the family, and the Lord reveals these things to us.
How do we pray in the Spirit in the prayer meeting? I think we have to be aware that the Spirit wants to orchestrate the prayer meeting.
“Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” The Spirit is there orchestrating the meeting.
Suppose everyone seems burdened to pray for a gospel meeting next Saturday, but I do not have that burden at all, so I pray about someone who is sick. Am I in the Spirit? Maybe I need to say, “Lord, what is Your burden here?”
The Lord has a burden when we come to the prayer meeting. To pray in the Spirit is to pray in the will of God and, you might say, in the direction of God during that prayer.
Do not feel guilty because you did not have a burden for Israel at the last prayer meeting when everybody else seemed to. Maybe you have a burden for a particular individual with a need, and you will get to that in prayer. Then you join in.
Certainly, in the Spirit, you need to be willing to pray. When somebody else prays the burden of your heart, you need to say, “Amen.”
When people are in the Spirit praying, there is a sense of the Lord’s presence among us, and He is able to get things done.
One other thing: this person is talking about decisions that must be made within a time frame. How do we know we are making the right decisions so that we will not get uncovered? Here is a person worrying too much.
If there is something with a time frame and we have to make a decision, God will answer us before the time is up. Maybe you thought it was supposed to be up Friday night, and it really lasts until Sunday. But have you ever found Him not to give us the answer when we needed it?
“We have to have it by Thursday night. We need to know whether to reserve the place or not.” If we really pray, we will get to Thursday night and know what we should do. So do not worry about all of that.
More importantly, here is the burden I would like to impress upon us: let us come to the prayer meeting filled with the Holy Spirit, with a burden in our hearts.
Perhaps the brothers in a meeting should talk to one another a little bit, or email each other, regarding particular burdens they feel need emphasis. The simplest preparation can make all the difference.
Usually two things need to happen when we come together for prayer. First, the saints need to worship in order to get onto the ground where we can pray. Worship is very important.
Second, people often come into the prayer meeting with baggage that we need to find a way of dealing with. Sometimes someone comes in very distraught—they were fired that day, or something happened. We have to stop and deal with the situation, because it affects the atmosphere.
There is so much baggage that something has to be taken care of before we can get to the other matters. We have to be sensitive to that in order to pray in the Spirit.
This is something the Lord wants us to learn and develop in our prayer meetings together, in corporate life: learning how to trust and follow the Holy Spirit as we pray. In our individual lives, we need to come to the place where our abiding life has a stance and a response, and we learn how to pray in the Spirit.
I am only going to take a few minutes. We are going to do everything possible to finish by eleven o’clock. I have three questions, but perhaps we need to try to respond to only one of them.
This question is preceded by a long explanation from a brother or sister, so that we can better understand what they are asking. I feel that we need to read the prelude to the question.
This brother or sister says:
For twenty-four years I have asked, prayed, cried, and begged for the Holy Spirit to fill me—an experience many other brothers and sisters around me have claimed to have.
I have earnestly sought the Lord with all my heart, mind, and strength these many years for an open heaven, some subjective experience of His reality in my spirit.
I feel so empty most of the time, like I am in a dream waiting to wake up to see the Lord.
I know so much in my mind—so much beautiful revelation knowledge through Brother T. Austin-Sparks, Watchman Nee, Brother Kong, Lance Lambert, and many others.
I love to read the Bible. It is His personal love letter to me. He does thrill my heart with His Word. The brethren are precious to me, with all their joys and burdens. But something, or Someone, is missing.
It seems so elementary after all these years of seeking. Why do I not sense the reality of His presence in me—the indwelling of His Holy Spirit—without which we all agree we cannot see or do anything in Christ?
I am weary of the battle and desperate for His life to be manifested in me. If this is all there is, my faith is not sufficient. I need Him to break through this bubble I feel trapped in.
The question is: “How do we really become filled with the Holy Spirit?” Postscript: “The ten easy steps never worked.”
I hope you sense the struggle that this dear saint is going through. Brothers and sisters, we want you to know that we respect your questions very much and seek to take them seriously.
Among us as the Lord’s people, there are many dear ones who, for whatever reason, do not feel liberty to share this kind of burden with the brothers and sisters they meet with. It is wonderful that somehow, in this kind of context, someone is free to unload their burden.
The question finally posed is, “How do we really become filled with the Holy Spirit?” As our dear brother Stephen said, the answer is always the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I read this question, what the Lord seemed to impress upon my heart—and what I hope will encourage this dear saint—is what our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11.
In this situation, the Lord had to upbraid and say very serious, critical things to cities in which He performed His greatest miracles. The reason He upbraided them was because they did not believe.
The Lord follows this by saying that no one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father. It is in His authority to do this work of revealing.
Then you remember how He follows that up. This dear saint said, “I am weary of the battle.” What did the Lord Jesus say?
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
As I read this prelude to the question, I think this is a dear saint carrying a very heavy burden and yoked with something other than the Lord ever wanted them to be yoked with.
What I would suggest and encourage this dear one to do is exactly what the Lord encouraged them to do: come to Me.
We are not trying to be super-spiritual, but all that we ever need, we find in a Person. It is all located in our Lord.
There is no question that this dear saint wants to know the Lord. But seemingly they have been going about it in an improper way that has actually prevented them from experiencing what their heart desires: to know the living God.
They felt they could know this by doing all these things and listening to all this ministry. That is not to take away from any of that. But they say, “I have all this revelation knowledge,” and somehow, in all these twenty-four years, it has not led to a personal, intimate, living relationship with the Lord.
One of the other questions we will not get to talks about the matter of religion. This is why we have to be alert to what religion can do.
Our life in the Lord Jesus can be turned into a religion. We can learn how to pray the right kind of prayer. We can impress people with flowery language. We can learn prayers and learn how to do all of it, and yet do it without this living relationship with our Lord Jesus.
What I would say to this dear saint is: listen to the Lord’s voice. “Come unto Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden.”
What are they weary of? This saint is weary. This saint is on the verge of cashing it in, of calling it quits. Sometimes we have to go this way. Sometimes we have to exhaust all the other alternatives before we finally come to the Lord.
It would be good to know what kind of personality this person has, because I think that probably feeds into the situation. But may we all discover from this dear saint that what we need to learn to do is come to Him.
That means we have an open door into our Lord’s presence and into our abiding in Him. It is to be ours all the time. It does not make any difference where we are.
Like our brother said, sometimes we need special times in our lives because there are situations where we need to deal with important matters. But in the ongoing day, when we are faced with many different things, we can come to Him.
Sometimes we think our Lord is impressed with long prayers and flowery prayers. But the prayer that encourages me is this: when our Lord Jesus came walking on the water to the disciples in the boat, Peter said, “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee upon the waters.”
He got out of the boat, brothers and sisters, and started walking on the water. You can imagine what the other fellows were thinking: “This guy has lost it. He is actually getting out of the boat.”
But when Peter took his eyes off the Lord and began to sink, what did he say? Did he say, “Dear blessed Lord, would You please consider reaching out Your hand and preventing me from sinking?” Is that what he said?
What did he say, brothers and sisters? “Help!”
This was real. We need to learn to do this in our daily life.
In that response our Lord Jesus gave, there is His solution to these kinds of situations. He said, first of all, “If you come to Me, I will give you rest.” It is a gift. You cannot do anything to earn it. It is a pure gift.
But then He says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Where do we discover this rest that our Lord Jesus is prepared to lead us into? How do we discover it? By taking His yoke upon us.
I would want to say to this dear saint that, in all probability, they did not understand the importance of not just being hearers of the Word, but being doers of the Word.
This saint admitted they had much revelation knowledge stored away in their brain, but it never got from here to here and translated into life.
There is one simple way we need to learn how to respond. When we are under the yoke of our Lord, there is one thing of utmost importance: learning how to obey.
Why would the Holy Spirit bring us into an understanding of these wonderful truths about our Lord if He did not expect us to obey? It is simple.
The question is, “How can I be filled—really filled—with the Holy Spirit?” In Acts 5:32, it says:
And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit,
whom God hath given to them that obey Him.
Obedience. If we do not obey what we already know, why do we want more if we are not willing to obey?
We need to learn this matter of simply responding in obedience to what the Lord, in His mercy, already shows us.
What we discover is that the weariness begins to disappear. The burdens are light, because our Lord Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
Whatever this dear saint is experiencing, they are experiencing it without knowing the living Lord in a very practical way in their everyday living.
If this happens to be our experience as well, we need the same encouragement. We need to listen to the Lord’s voice: “Come unto Me.” Come unto Him and keep coming—not just one time, but keep on coming, daily and moment by moment.
Well, the Lord bless us.