Well, brothers and sisters, this is a question-and-answer time, and I want to explain it first. If there are academic questions, men may be able to help. But if there is any spiritual question, no man can help; no man can answer. But thank God, the answer is there, and I believe you know it: it is Christ.
So do not expect men to answer your spiritual questions. You have to go to the Lord for the answer. Maybe you will find that if you try to get an answer from man, it is very easy for you, because you do not need to pay a cost. But if you try to get an answer from God, beware: there is a cost you have to pay.
I was given a number of questions, but I thank the brothers. They said I did not need to answer all these questions. They said that if only I would share with the brothers and sisters on one topic, one question, we might use this opportunity to share with one another as fellow pilgrims.
All I can do is share and encourage one another. We are all learners. No man has ever graduated from the school of Christ.
A brother was advising a young medical doctor who was going to India as a missionary. The young brother asked, “What should I do?” The older brother said, “You need to hang around your neck a sign—a red sign: L.”
Now, in England, when you are learning to drive, that is the sign you have to hang around your neck. So the brother said, “You go as a missionary, not to teach, but to learn.”
Dear brothers and sisters, are we glad that we are all learners? We can encourage one another on the way upward.
The questions are related to this topic. I will read them briefly—quite a number of questions, but they are all related. As a matter of fact, this question should be answered by Brother Dana.
Brother Dana has mentioned that one of the characteristics of spiritual travail is brokenness. Could you share some more light on this matter? What are the basic differences between a broken soul and an unbroken soul? Could an unbroken soul also enter into spiritual travail? Please provide some examples.
From death comes life, but my experience tells me that although I consider myself to have died several times—is that not wonderful?—the self-life sometimes pops up again. It seems these are only false deaths of the self-life. How can we experience true death to our self-life so that the life of Christ might live out?
In Philippians 3:10-11, it seems to me that the fellowship of His sufferings can only happen after we are standing on resurrection ground, on the ground of resurrection life. Could you shed some light on the relationship between resurrection life and spiritual travail? How can we always live under resurrection life?
Could you clarify what is the outcome of spiritual travail? How could we put the outcome in the most simple and practical terms? Is the fruit or outcome of spiritual travail the man-child in Revelation 12:5, the bride of Christ in Revelation 19:7, or many sons in glory in Romans 8:29? What a question.
Now, first of all, brothers and sisters, what is brokenness?
Brokenness refers to the breaking of the outward man. That is to say, it is the soul-life in us that must be broken in order that the Christ-life in our spirit may be released.
We all know that all spiritual experience has to come from the spirit. It will touch the soul and the body, but the origin has to begin in the spirit. It has to be a spiritual exercise, and spiritual travail, no doubt, is a spiritual exercise.
Now, in order that what comes out of our spirit may be pure, our outward man—the soul-life—has to be broken. Otherwise, whatever comes out will be a mixture, impure. God is a God of purity. Spiritual travail actually rests in spiritual purity. So you can see right away that, in this matter of spiritual travail, brokenness is a must.
But I am afraid that among God’s people, the concept of brokenness is not quite accurate. Some people say that once you have experienced brokenness, you are safe for life. That is to say, whatever comes afterwards must be of the spirit and not of the soul. Now, that kind of concept is not accurate.
When you come to spiritual things, it does not really begin with you; it always begins with God. God reveals, and under His revelation we know what needs to be broken. Otherwise, if you try to be broken by yourself, you will kill yourself.
So revelation is actually the beginning of all spiritual experience. But again, when you think of revelation, probably our concept is inaccurate. We think of revelation as something tremendous and earth-shaking, and unless it is that kind, there is no revelation. Not so.
Our dear brother Watchman told us that in your lifetime you may have one or two drastic revelations that seem to change your life tremendously. But we should receive revelation day by day. Otherwise, how can we walk before God? As He reveals, we follow.
So, brothers and sisters, in this matter of brokenness, it is the same thing. In our spiritual life, there may come a day when there is such a drastic experience of brokenness that it seems to revolutionise your life. But that does not mean that because you have had such an experience, you are broken for life.
Our self-life is very subtle. You probably have to be broken again and again. So brokenness is a progressive experience. For some people, it is exactly the opposite: they are broken gradually, little by little, until one day there is a real brokenness.
Let me illustrate. When you think of the Apostle Paul, what was his experience? On the road to Damascus, the light of God came upon him, and he became a broken person. It changed him completely.
But that does not mean that after that he had no trials, no struggles, and no continual need to be broken. You remember Romans 7. Some people say this refers to Paul before he was converted, but I personally feel it refers to after his mind had been renewed, because it is a battle between the mind and the law in his body.
Then, if you study the life of Jacob, you find that God was trying to break him again and again. Even before he fled from his home, and after he fled for twenty years, God worked upon him to break him down. But he was such a strong person.
Then, at Peniel, finally, he wrestled with God, and God touched his thigh. He became a broken person. But even after that brokenness, you find that the sly Jacob still comes up. But he would not have a good time.
So, brothers and sisters, brokenness is a spiritual principle. It is a basic principle that every believer must experience if he wants to grow spiritually.
Now, because of this, can an unbroken soul have spiritual travail? What do you think? I see people shaking their heads. Is there anyone nodding? No? Well, even before brokenness, there can be some spiritual travail.
Think of that. After you are saved, have you ever prayed and travailed for the ones you love? Have you already experienced brokenness? No.
It is true that in that kind of travail there is much that is worldly, self-centred, and self-interested—out of your own self. When you see other people perish, it may not touch you; but when you think that your loved ones will perish, that worries you, and you begin to pray.
There is some travail there, but I say again, it is very mixed—maybe a tiny little bit from the spirit and mostly from your soulish love.
Maybe one day the Lord has to purify it. When you begin to pray, not for your own sake but for the sake of the Lord, you have got it.
Think of Hannah. She did not have any sons. Can you imagine? She never prayed for that son? If you are a mother, I believe you must pray very earnestly to get a son. But God did not answer her—not until she came to a day when she realised that she wanted a son, not for herself, but for the Lord. Then she got it.
So, dear brothers and sisters, it is true: the purer your spirit is, and the more broken your self-life is, the more effective your spiritual travail will be. But thank God, even after we are saved, that very life within us—the very Holy Spirit who indwells us—begins to work.
It is very true that the fellowship of His sufferings, which Paul mentions in Philippians 3, follows the power of His resurrection. When you realise that any fellowship of His sufferings includes spiritual travail, you see that you cannot join the Lord in His sufferings unless it is the Lord Himself who is working in your life.
We have to see that it is not by our own life that we can travail spiritually. When you have spiritual travail, your soul-life suffers. That is true. But that does not mean true spiritual travail comes from your soul. Your soul-life is affected, and as a matter of fact, it is really the object of brokenness.
But spiritual travail is carried on not by your soul-life, but by your spirit-life. What is your spirit-life? Your spirit-life is nothing but the life of Christ. His life is the power of resurrection, because He said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, I think it is very clear: as far as spiritual travail is concerned, it is not of man; it is of God. It is the Spirit of God who moves upon your inner man, the Christ-life in you. From the Christ-life there is a travail that begins from heaven to earth, and then from earth back to heaven. That is what prayer really is.
I believe, brothers and sisters, that even though we may not have reached the summit, as it were, of spiritual travail, more or less we have tasted something like it. In order that this spiritual travail may really increase—and it is not for ourselves, but for the purpose of God—remember that our outward man has to be broken.
The problem today is that we do not realise how strong our soul-life is. In the measure of the breaking of the outward man will be the measure of the release of the inner man. That is to say, we are made more ready for spiritual travail.
In spiritual things, it is never merely an outward matter; it is always an inward experience. The deeper you experience the breaking of your outward man, the more you will be prepared for spiritual travail.
What will be the fruit of it? As you read the Scriptures, you will find, first of all, that through spiritual travail—from your passion for Christ, nothing but Christ—God’s purpose concerning His Son will gradually be fulfilled. His Son may become all and in all in your life. He may sum up all things in your life.
At the same time, you will be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. You will be used of God, as Paul was used, to help bring people to the Lord and help perfect them in Christ.
By doing that, the church, the Body of Christ, will be built. Thank God, our Lord Jesus travailed for the church. He brought it to birth, and He is continuing to travail for His church.
By the grace of God, we are to share in that which is lacking of the tribulations of Christ for His Body—not in a redeeming, atoning sense, but in the sense of encouraging, helping, ministering, and uniting brothers and sisters, that we may grow together to be a full-grown Body, full of the stature of Christ, and prepared for the coming of the Bride.
As you read the Scriptures, you may say that the fruit may be the man-child in Revelation 12, the Bride in Revelation 19, and, beyond that, the eternal Bride in Revelation 21 and 22. Thank God, He who has purposed has perfected it.
I mentioned, I believe it was last year, that I think we have this thing backwards. I think we should be asking the question. Nonetheless, my brothers do not agree.
There are two questions that I have been asked to consider. One is directly related to spiritual travail, and the other has a dimension to it. I will seek to respond first to the one dealing directly with spiritual travail.
The question is this: “It is obvious that there is a direct relationship between our fervent love for the Lord and spiritual travail. Could you shed some more light on the relationship between spiritual travail, our intimate relationship with the Lord, and fellowship with fellow saints? Could you give some good examples?”
As I considered this, there are some verses that may help us receive the Lord’s answer. First of all, there are the verses in Philippians 3 that we have heard read so many times this weekend.
But whatever things were gain to me,
these things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them but rubbish,
so that I may gain Christ.
This brother or sister wanted to know whether there is a relationship between our intimate relationship with the Lord, our relationship with our brothers and sisters, and the issue of travail. I think Paul gives us the answer.
When Paul had his first encounter with the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road, there was such a transaction—such an experience of seeing who the Lord Jesus Christ was. Remember, he was Christ’s enemy. He was trying to destroy the work that the Lord Jesus was doing. He was pursuing those simple brothers and sisters who were disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yet when he had this encounter with the Lord Jesus, something radical occurred in him. First, he asked, “Who are You?” Jesus said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
Then he asked another question. I wonder, my brothers and sisters, whether this is a problem some of us have: we never ask the second question—“Lord, what would You have me do?”
It seems to me that from what he saw of Christ being revealed to him, his right response was to say, “You are Lord.” When Paul used that word, Lord, I think it had much more meaning and depth than when we sometimes say it. We have used it so many times without the right meaning that perhaps it has lost the significance it ought to have for us.
If, by the help of the Holy Spirit and by the mercy of God, our eyes are opened to see who the Lord Jesus Christ is, then something of what Paul experienced will be our experience. He said, “I am willing to forsake everything, count everything as loss.” Three times in these verses he says, “I consider everything to be a loss.” For what purpose? That I may gain Christ.
Is there a relationship between spiritual travail and our relationship with Him? I believe there is a very significant relationship. If all that interests us is being assured that we will escape hell and that there is a place in heaven reserved for us, then there will not be much travail in our life, because it is already done for us.
But in order for us to come into a full experience of all that God has provided for us in His Son, we have to do the same thing Paul did: begin to count things as loss.
Can I mention something practical? In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul speaks of going from glory to glory. There is a work of the Holy Spirit from the very beginning when we come to know our Lord Jesus. Christ Himself, His life in us, has come to take up residence in us. For what purpose? That we may be conformed to His image.
If this life were not there, there would be no way that we could ever be conformed to the image of Christ. But He is there, and, as our dear brother shared, God’s objective is that this life will grow in us.
You know what Paul said in Philippians 1: “For me to live is Christ.” Brothers, I am not there yet, but that is where the Lord is trying to take every one of us. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Now, how is this supposed to happen in our practical, everyday living? How does this become a reality? Probably our problem is that we have too many things we are unwilling to lose—maybe some sleep.
You may say, “Ernie, do not become legalistic.” I do not want to be legalistic, but we need to face reality, my brothers and sisters. How do we go from glory to glory according to 2 Corinthians 3? What is our responsibility?
The Holy Spirit will do the work, and He will help us fulfil our responsibility. But what is our responsibility? Beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror.
Do you do that? How can you do it? You have to set aside time in your life to push away all distractions. Take the Word of God, submit yourself to the Holy Spirit, and let Him show you more and more of Jesus.
It is only to the degree that you and I come to see Him—to see what a wonderful, wonderful Lord He is. He is incomparable, indescribable, unfathomable, unsearchable. Brothers and sisters, there is nobody else like Him.
Do you believe that our heavenly Father wants to make us like Him? This cannot happen automatically. There is discipline involved. Remember Hebrews 12: the writer tells us that the purpose of discipline is that we might share the holiness of God.
That is something more than being forgiven of our sins. This means that we are glorified, that the character of the Son of God is being formed in us—produced in us. It is something eternal, something we cannot do. But the Holy Spirit cannot do it without our commitment and cooperation.
So we have to have times. Let me ask: are we willing to give up some sleep, to lose a little sleep, that we might grow into conformity with Him?
You know what I hear again and again, especially from my brothers and sisters here in the United States? “I am so busy.” I hear some of them talking as though there are no longer twenty-four hours in a day—only eighteen. It depends where you live. New York is probably only sixteen!
They are so occupied with so many other things that there is simply no time to do this beholding. Now, let us face reality: if you do not do it, it will not get done. We are deceiving ourselves, and we are holding on to those things that we ought to be losing.
Maybe sometimes we need to change our priorities concerning what is important in our lives. What did Paul say?
More than that, I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Let us ask ourselves this morning: is there anything in your life more important to you than knowing the Lord Jesus Christ? If it is, it is an idol, and it is a tremendous hindrance to your spiritual growth. It will interfere with what God is seeking to do.
What is travail in this context? Travail is losing whatever you need to lose so that you may gain Christ. If you do not lose it, you do not gain it. It is that simple to me. So the choice is with us.
Is there a relationship between loving our Lord and spiritual travail? Yes—even in terms of what is going to happen in us, and also in terms of our responsibility as members of the Body of Christ.
My dear brothers and sisters, I trust that the Holy Spirit will somehow lay hold of our hearts and remind us again and again of what God has involved us with. We are involved in the most important thing happening in the universe.
We have to ask ourselves: am I willing to lose some of my free time, my time for myself? Am I willing to give up some television viewing to seek to be a source of encouragement to other brothers and sisters, or to find a way to communicate this wonderful gospel to those who have never heard and never responded?
I am not trying to make us feel guilty. That is not really what is in my heart, though it may come across that way. But is there a relationship? Yes, there is a direct relationship.
Let us be encouraged by what we see happening in the life of Saul of Tarsus. Was there anybody more antagonistic toward the One whom he came to love? Yet he manifested that love in a very practical way.
I will only mention 2 Corinthians 11. All those experiences were manifestations of his love for his Lord. When he said, “Lord, what would You have me do?” he fully surrendered.
There is no substitute, whether you are older or younger, for a full and total commitment of your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. I promise you on the basis of the Word of God: you will like the final product. You may have some trouble with the process, but I guarantee that you will like the final result—conformed to the image of the Son of God.
Brothers and sisters, suppose our Lord Jesus were standing there, and you could see His character. Then here am I. Can you imagine the great discrepancy between who He is and who I am? Now put yourself there. Do you see that there is a difference?
The more I walk with my Lord, the more I see how unlike Him I am. But hallelujah, God is not discouraged. He has predetermined—strong word—He has predestined us. Nothing is going to stand in the way. We can slow down the process and make it take much longer, but if we see who He is and what He wants to do in us, what price is too high to pay?
What are you unwilling to lose in light of that? There is a direct relationship. Our God is so practical. Every hour of our lives, He gives us opportunities to grow into the image of our Lord Jesus and demonstrate our love for Him.
Let me quickly respond to the other question. This brother is asking about what Paul says in Galatians 4:19:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail
until Christ be formed in you.
He mentioned six other Scriptures. We do not have time this morning, nor do I feel I am in a position adequately to respond to them. But there are two other verses that he mentions which I feel have something to do with spiritual travail.
First, Ephesians 4:13. In the previous verses, Paul has mentioned that our exalted Lord has given a fivefold function to the Body of Christ for the purpose of building the church.
There was one great burden in the heart of our Lord Jesus: to build His church and get His Bride ready. The problem is not with Him; the problem is with us. It is not that He is incapable of getting us ready, but we have a responsibility to make ourselves ready—to take the grace, submit to His discipline, learn to obey Him, and learn to hear His voice.
Paul says:
For the equipping of the saints,
for the work of serving,
to the building up of the Body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith,
and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.
Again, the brother points out that word until. In Galatians 4, it is “until Christ be formed in you.” Here it is “until we attain to the unity of the faith.”
The other verse mentioned is Acts 3:21:
Whom heaven must receive
until the period of restoration of all things,
about which God spoke
by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times.
Here the emphasis is on the period of restoration. In this issue of spiritual travail, we come back to what Paul is talking about in Galatians: “until Christ be formed in you.”
What was the problem with the brothers and sisters in the churches of Galatia? Very simply, they had listened to a false gospel—something not according to the new covenant that had been introduced into their lives. Some of them were reverting back to the old covenant.
Dear brothers and sisters, I feel this is a problem among us. It would be valuable for us to rehearse, review, and come to a fuller understanding of what it means to be members of the new covenant. The great danger is that you and I continue to revert to God’s old-covenant ways.
The question is, how do we allow the old covenant to be useful to us as new-covenant people without violating the new covenant? This was Paul’s problem. When you read the Galatian letter, this man is not happy: “O foolish Galatians, who has deceived you?”
Do we understand that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through His finished work on Calvary, God has given us the absolute best? There is nothing greater He can give us. When that is not good enough, we have problems.
This new covenant, established by our Lord Jesus Christ, has provision for everything. There is provision for your full salvation, to be sanctified entirely. There are no excuses. There is provision for the church to attain to the unity of the faith.
There is provision for God to work so that everything will be restored to God’s design and standard. There is travail in terms of our being conformed to the image of Christ. There is travail if the church is ever going to become fully prepared.
Sometimes when we think about the Bride and her condition now, I do not know what words we would use to describe the church today as the Bride of Christ. But some brides, unfortunately, do not take this issue of being a wife too seriously. Here it is eleven o’clock, and she still has her hair in curlers, sitting on the sofa watching a soap opera.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be occupied with this issue. There is only one Christ, and there is only one revelation of Him. The Holy Spirit is prepared to bring us to the unity of the faith.
The unity of the Spirit is something given; we have to learn to live in it and be real with it. But the unity of the faith is something we have to attain to.
That means we have to do some changing in our thinking, because we are divided among men across many lines. One of them is doctrinally. Is it not amazing? There is only one Christ, one Spirit, one Bible; but in Brazil there are three thousand denominations, and many are divided along doctrinal lines. That is not the work of the Holy Spirit.
Travail means that I do not divide from my brothers and sisters on the basis of doctrine. That does not mean that I have to agree with them. I have to be true to what I see, but I do not allow it to become something that divides me and prevents me from entering fellowship to whatever degree we can.
Certainly there are issues. But when they are not related to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to be very tolerant, brothers and sisters.
I remember our dear brother Stephen sharing that he was invited to speak at a conference. Another brother was there who disagreed with Stephen about the second coming of the Lord Jesus. That brother refused to speak because Stephen was there and had a different understanding. This is foolishness—more than foolishness. It is a violent sin against our Lord Jesus.
God’s objective is to bring everything to the restoration of all things. He is working in us individually, and He is working in the assembly for this goal. Glory is the result of this travail. May the Lord be merciful to us day by day.
Stephen got one question, Ernie got two, and I got three. There is a pecking order here, I am telling you.
Actually, I always hesitate and am a little resistant about these question-and-answer times. But I must say that our brother Stephen gave a whole message in his short answer—something for us really to consider.
I hope you can appreciate the tremendous dimension of spiritual travail. Stephen, Ernie, and I took a somewhat different tack on these matters simply because there is so much to say.
Our brother Stephen shared the origins of spiritual travail, coming out of the travail of our Lord Jesus, and how that life is formed in us and begins to travail by the Spirit in us. He spoke of travail in the world, travail in the suffering Servant, and how we enter into that travail.
Ernie shared a comprehensive view of spiritual travail along the lines of Romans 8:28. He spoke of the way the Holy Spirit takes all things, including Paul’s time in the sea for a day and a half and the times he was beaten. This is a comprehensive view of the travail that goes on in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is the great Engineer of our lives. If we consecrate our lives to Him, there are no mistakes. All those things—whether physical or soulish—are part of a package to break our outward man. Ernie shared that comprehensive definition.
For myself, I took a narrower definition. Spiritual travail, in its narrower definition, speaks of that aspect of prayer that involves travail.
We have much to thank the mystics for in defining spiritual travail. When you read the lives of mystic Christians, you see that they were often taken by the Lord in a way that affected their bodies and souls as the Lord had them pray for things. We learn much from them in this matter.
The word also came into usage, at least in English-speaking circles, probably in the late nineteenth century. In England, they found the Holy Spirit travailing in prayer. I recently read a biography of Jessie Penn-Lewis. She was among those who discovered this matter of getting through in prayer—taking hold of a burden, praying until the Lord gives Scriptures, laying hold of those Scriptures, and praying something through to the Lord.
The English missionary movement laid hold of this, and it helped them greatly. Rees Howells came out of the same tradition: the Lord has burdens for us to find, pray about, find Scriptures for, and take executive action upon. This became the narrower definition of spiritual travail that I was trying to relate to in my messages.
Today, in some charismatic or post-charismatic circles, spiritual travail is often used to mean that when a prayer meeting takes up a matter—perhaps a pastor is sick—everyone begins praying in tongues. That is what they call spiritual travail. I do not want to comment on that; I only want you to know what some people mean when they use the term.
Paul says in Romans 8 that we have a burden beyond words, a groaning, and some say that is the gift of tongues. I am not going to say whether that is true or not. It sounds valid in a way, but that is not all there is to it.
My burden in speaking about spiritual travail has been this matter of how the Lord begins to teach us in praying together. The three questions I have are all regarding prayer.
The first question concerns Hannah in 1 Samuel. When she asked God to give her a son, she wept and fasted before the Lord. Do we ever travail under a burden for ourselves, or only for others? When we go through struggles of our own and we are weeping, fasting, and crying out to God for help, are we travailing for ourselves?
I want to recommend prayer, weeping, fasting, and crying before the Lord anytime. I also want to encourage everybody by saying this: can I tell on the great saints, even those in the Bible? Much of what ends up being spiritual travail on a higher level begins with a selfish need.
Hannah is the case in point. She needed a child. She was crying out to God for a child for her own maternal satisfaction and to put Peninnah’s tongue to rest.
But God opened her eyes to see. One day she was praying, “God, give me a son,” and God said, “Psst, Hannah, I need a man.” God brought her burden up to a higher level. Then she said, “Lord, You give me a child; I will give You a man.” God said, “Deal.”
Samuel was an epoch-changing man whose final great work was bringing David into the kingship of Israel.
Think of Jonah. Jonah was crying, “O God, take my life. It is no good to me. I came here to Nineveh, and I prophesied, and then You did not do what I said. I cannot take it.”
God said, “Jonah, the mercy I show you—do you not know that I have mercy on all these people?” Jonah wrote the book to tell on himself, to show how narrow his burdens were until God made them bigger. The only reason Jonah wrote the book is that he now had a burden even for the sinners of Nineveh. But it started out pretty selfish.
I am not going to take criticism if you want to talk about Job. He had no idea that God and Satan were using his life. He was down there grovelling and travailing, and it was all about what? Moi. But by the time Job was through, he saw God, and God opened him up in sonship.
Most burdens that we receive, which may become spiritual travail on a larger scale—praying for the church, praying for God’s testimony—usually begin because there is a personal relevance to us.
Have you ever noticed that when an assembly is doing well outwardly—good meetings, good worship, good teaching—how often do you hear travail for that assembly? Usually somebody in the crowd, whom we think is an outsider, says, “You know, I am praying, and there is something not right here.”
Then, when the crunch comes and a fellowship hits a real trial, most of us are caught completely off guard because we are not sensitive to spiritual things. I admit that for myself as well. We go along looking at things outwardly: there are more people, there is great excitement, and meanwhile something is going wrong inside.
I will never forget being in Queens in fellowship with Brother Christian Chen and the other brothers shortly after September 11. Brother Christian seldom chastised the saints, but I think the first message given after September 11 was essentially this: “Why have we not been praying for New York City?”
“As God’s people in New York City, should we not pray not only for kings but for our own city—for its safety, and that Satan would be prevented from entering into our city? Why did we not pray?” We were all ashamed, because seldom in our prayer meetings had we taken this seriously.
We prayed after the fact. But I am simply saying that we are such selfish people.
Even Paul had to learn. His first missionary journey to the Galatian churches was a wonderful time. But during the second journey he heard about the problems arising in Galatia, and he began to pray for those churches. Even Paul had to come to the place where he could say, “We are not ignorant of the enemy’s devices.”
The enemy has more ways to bring down the church, divide the saints, and break up families than you and I are intelligent of. At least we can ask God, “God, we are so ignorant, but would You keep us sensitive?”
What we need is for Jesus to come to our church just as He came to the seven churches and say, “Warning: you are losing your love. You are getting cold. You are doing things traditionally.” We need the Lord Jesus to do that, and I believe He does. But sometimes we leave Him outside the door knocking because we are too busy. Shame on us.
The saint who will have a burden and travail for the church is probably a saint who has been in a church that went bad. Maybe you saw something precious, and now something precious has been lost. In retrospect, we realise what we have lost, and we are on our knees for the Lord’s church.
Through many trials and travails, Paul went from place to place, starting churches. By 2 Corinthians 11, he lists all that he went through. But then he says that when he hears of a saint in weakness, he feels weak; when a saint is caught in sin, it ruins his night. Why? Because he realised what that does.
The Corinthians might say, “Well, that saint is in immorality. It will not really hurt us that much.” Paul knew by sad experience.
This question is completely legitimate. If you have a personal burden, go to the Lord and pray. If you have a travail, the Lord has a wonderful way of lifting that burden beyond yourself.
You may say, “Lord, I am so burdened. I do not feel at home in this church.” The Lord may come back to you and say, “I do not feel at home either. Let us pray.”
A mature saint hears about something with which he has no personal connection and truly feels travail for it. As a discipline in Manhattan, when we meet as a little group on Thursday nights, we always take up a couple of matters beyond ourselves. We find out about someone needing prayer in Africa, or some situation in Nepal, and we pray.
It is difficult for saints whose average age is twenty-six to get too worked up about what has happened in Nepal—until we send two people there for a visit. Then they come back burdened, while the rest of us are still saying, “La, la, la.”
When it is time to pray for Nepal, there may be groaning, silence, and a couple of prayers. Then we come down to personal matters: somebody has lost a job, and suddenly there is a flood of twelve prayers. Why? Because that is real to us. We know Joe, and we know he lost his job.
May the Lord grow us up to where, when the Lord has a burden for Nepal—even though we do not know a thing about it—we can somehow enter into that burden in travail.
This was the great lesson of the Rees Howells training centre. During the First World War, they received all kinds of prayer burdens about situations they knew nothing about. They found out afterwards that there had been a sudden attack in a certain place, and they had prayed specifically for that place.
Those were people who had given themselves long enough to develop sensitivity when the Spirit says, “Psst, pray for the saints in South Jersey.” Even though we are not there, we say, “Lord, You know.”
But I think it begins with an individual burden, and then the Lord enlarges our hearts. I wish I were a great travailer—I give no credit to that—but I came here Friday night and heard something someone was sharing with me. I could not sleep all Friday night.
It was not that I am a great travailer. It simply breaks my heart when I see the enemy attack something. I had not heard anything about it, and I could not sleep all night. I thought about the situation all night long and hardly knew what to pray. I groaned and tried to sleep, but Friday night I was sleepless.
That is what happens when our heart becomes larger than ourselves. When you see any saint going down, being attacked, or facing something destructive, it attacks you.
Paul says, “Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn?” Do you feel that way? The Lord is going to pull us out of selfishness one wisdom tooth at a time, until we really care for one another.
As everything is shaken and coming down, as the writer of Hebrews says, “Let brotherly love continue.” The Lord prepares us for that. Does individual prayer start out individual? Yes, it does. Will it grow into a larger burden? Yes.
The second question is this: what if just two or three are together and the Lord has given us a special burden? Is it right to pray about it with spiritual travail? If so, how do we do it and remain covered?
It is a large question. Obviously, when two or three gather, especially those with a burden to pray, it is fine. I have no problem with it.
But what guidelines should we have to keep us from becoming uncovered? Two things can go wrong when two or three get together to pray.
First, they may begin to feel that they are somebody and become proud about it. We have to be careful about that. Second, we may begin to gossip and judge people as we pray about them. Then things go wrong.
We should ask ourselves: what we are praying about today while drinking coffee among a couple of sisters, could we take that to the house of God and share it as a burden?
I know there are confidential matters. Some things we pray about cannot be shared openly, and I understand that. But generally, if we are praying for somebody while secretly judging them, there may be a problem there.
Independence can develop, where the prayers seem to know more than everybody else. In fact, that may even be true. But there cannot be independence. That is why I said, “From the closet to the house.”
Which brings up the third question: how about corporate prayer? We are thankful for examples of individual spiritual travail, but what are examples of corporate spiritual travail?
The question mentions two perfect examples: Acts 4 and Acts 12. In Acts 4, Peter and John had been imprisoned. When they were released, there was tremendous prayer in one accord. They prayed with a great burden: “Lord, take note of the threats we have received. Give us power through Jesus to continue being faithful to You.”
The place was shaken, they preached the gospel, and a few thousand more people were saved. That is a good prayer meeting. The Lord was surely there. It is a perfect example of travail together.
There was a real threat. “If you keep doing this, we are going to do something.” They prayed, “Please give us courage in the Holy Spirit,” and they received a fresh empowering. Many more were saved.
Then there is Acts 12, the little prayer meeting where we meet Rhoda. Peter was in jail because Herod had done more than threaten: he had killed James, John’s brother, and put Peter in prison.
An angel came and brought Peter out of jail. Then Peter went to Rhoda’s house, where they were praying and praying and praying: “O Lord, as Peter is killed, we pray.” Then came the knock, knock, knock.
Is that legitimate spiritual travail? Absolutely. We hear of a worker who has been imprisoned—absolutely. We hear of someone who is deathly ill—absolutely.
A few years back, I lived in Huntington. Ernie’s wife, Zola, was gravely ill. The saints in Huntington decided to have an extra night each week to gather and pray for her.
We learned more about the Lord, His mercy, faith, and prayer as we prayed for Zola and for her healing. Of course, the Lord took her home, but that did not discourage us at all. Something had gripped all our hearts, and we prayed for mercy and upheld Brother Ernie during that very difficult time.
So we need to learn how to pray together. May this matter of spiritual travail come into the assembly in a real and living way.
Usually in our assembly life, we are prone to tick off long lists: many people are sick, people do not have jobs, and there is this and that. Those personal matters are things we should take up. We are together, and there are people in need, so let us pray.
But if we do not take time to find out what the Lord is really burdened about—perhaps something beyond personal matters—how will we find those larger issues in a living way?
It is not as mysterious as you think. Some saints need to take up the matter of the prayer meeting in spiritual travail and ask the Lord, “Are there some things, Lord? Is there something You want us to pray about?”
Perhaps we receive a phone call from somebody, and it sticks in our heart that we need to pray for a particular couple. It does not have to be huge. We are not necessarily talking about a world war breaking out. It may concern the church in some location or some workers.
I am thankful that many saints prayed for me during a difficult summer. Sometimes we get exhausted, worn out, and discouraged. Yet the Lord raises us up again. One reason He does this is to show that He keeps resurrecting His people, encouraging us all.
Why did the Lord allow Paul to go through shipwreck, imprisonments, and everything else? It was breaking Paul’s strong outward life. But how it encouraged the saints.
Imagine what the saints in Philippi thought when they read Paul’s letter. Paul said, in effect, “They put me in prison, but they cannot keep me down. Some of the guards have been saved. Beyond that, there are people preaching the gospel who never did so before.” He was counting his blessings in jail.
He said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Thank you so much for sending your gift to me.” There were the saints in Philippi feeling low, and there was resurrected Paul, living on resurrection ground.
When Paul was stoned in Derbe and stood back up, I think that may have been the moment Timothy was saved. That is only something I read somewhere, but it sounds good. Timothy lived there. When he saw Paul get up from that stoning, perhaps he said, “Wow, look what God can do.”
The way God preserved Paul through shipwrecks and everything else spells out on a great neon sign: God will take care of you.
Do not be afraid. Not everyone is as bold as Paul. Many saints are so timid that to speak to a coworker, they almost have to fast for a week. But when they see that sign over Paul, they see that the Lord may take us through hard times, but He always brings us through, as He did Joseph, because He has given us resurrection life.
Corporately, we need to learn to stand with one another and carry burdens larger than our own local assembly. When we see things done, praise God for the life that comes out of it.
I believe that when the Lord gives us burdens concerning larger matters, He really intends to do something. It may not always be what we think, but He always does something.
I love Lance’s testimony of how he, his sister, and some teenage friends got together after hearing about the Hebrides revival in Scotland. They became burdened and said, “We have to pray for revival in London.”
Those teenagers prayed and travailed because God gave them the burden and grace to pray. Every night for three months, at least two people came and prayed—sometimes eight. Every night, for three months.
Revival did not come to London as they expected, but they began holding gospel meetings and young people were saved. It took three months of prayer to prepare them to preach the gospel and see people saved. But God did it. Life came into Halford House and into the testimony of our dear brother Lance.
Lance learned from prayer sisters who had learned lessons of laying hold of the Lord, praying through, and receiving Scriptures. They were prayer warriors. Something entered Lance and his sister’s hearts concerning prayer, and they laid hold of it.
I remember visiting Halford House when Lance was still there, in the early 1980s. They had a prayer and Bible week. Every day for a week, they prayed morning, afternoon, and evening.
It was amazing what they had learned about prayer and their ability to enter into spiritual travail. At that time, they were praying about a railroad strike in London. The strike had crippled the people who needed to travel into the city to work.
I remember one afternoon they took up this matter. “Praying about a railroad strike? Lord, we have to have this strike broken.” They prayed, and then they did what anybody does after spiritual travail: they had tea.
The next day, the newspaper said, “Strike broken.” They were hooting and hollering in Halford House. I do not know where they got the burden to pray for that, but it was obviously from the Lord.
Behind the scenes, there were at least two brothers and three sisters who read the newspapers and prayed about situations. They wrote to missionaries in Nepal and elsewhere. They obtained current reports and prayed for those situations.
When they came to the prayer meeting, they not only had a list of those who were sick; they also had one or two burdens concerning larger matters that the Lord was intensely concerned about. The saints had learned to get beyond themselves and pray for those things, as well as for individual needs.
What is the secret to corporate prayer on a higher level? We need some dear sisters and a few brothers who will spend time really thinking about what the Lord wants us to pray about at the next prayer meeting. Could it be any simpler than that?
Wherever we are at present, if we learn over the years to develop an ear to hear the Lord, He will make our corporate prayer meetings meetings of spiritual travail as well.
It is not that every Wednesday night we come together with some huge issue to pray about. It is not, “We believe an asteroid is going to hit the moon; we have to pray and veer it off course.” Every week is not some enormous crisis.
But the Lord wants us to learn His heart on larger levels—things going on in the kingdom that He wants us to pray about, to bind and to loose, to learn these lessons, and to take the keys in the prayer meeting.
I know that when our prayer meetings are bristling with life, that comes because we are before the Lord and spiritually exercised—not merely praying for people, but spiritually exercised. That is a living prayer meeting.
May the Lord help us come to that place.