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We need to cooperate with the installed and operating law of the Spirit of life by “switching on” the spontaneous and automatic power of the installed and automatic God, the indwelling Spirit as the “current” of the Triune God; to “switch on” this law is to remain in touch with the Lord, to stay in constant contact with Him, to have habitual fellowship with Him, and to be under His constant infusion by walking according to the spirit—Eph. 6:18:
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To behave, act, move, and live in the mingled spirit, which is the law of the Spirit of life mingled with our spirit, is to behave, act, move, and live in the Body of Christ—Phil. 2:13.
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In our spirit we have the presence of God, the speaking of God, the meeting with God, and the dispensing of God through His operation as the law of the Spirit of life to impart Himself into all our inward parts—Heb. 8:10.
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To walk according to the spirit is to pray at every time in spirit—Eph. 6:18:
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Our unceasing, continual, living, and breathing prayer should be “Lord, live through me”—1 Thes. 5:17; Eph. 6:18; Hymns, #403.
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According to the revelation of Ephesians, we have to be persons who pray unceasingly in order to have the reality of the Body life; we must be watchful, fully awakened, fighting against our sleeping nature and our sleeping being, not just physically but also psychologically and spiritually—5:14; 6:17-18; Col. 4:2.
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We need to exercise our spirit to rise up over our body and our psychology, taking heed to the Lord's word to watch and pray, praying at every time in spirit and being watchful, on the alert, for the maintaining of our prayer life—Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:18.
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We must build up the habit of living Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ by building up the habit of prayer, the habit of breathing in the pneumatic Christ unceasingly by calling on Him and conversing with Him—Lam. 3:55-56; Psa. 102, title; Hymns, #255.
Morning Nourishment
Rom. 8:4 "That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit."Col. 4:2 "Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving."
1 Thes. 5:17 "Unceasingly pray."
[That God] works within us not by activities but by law…is one of the biggest discoveries, even recoveries, in God's economy. We need…to cooperate with Him.…To cooperate with this law is to walk according to the spirit, and to walk according to the spirit is the way to cooperate with this working law. The law has been installed, but the law's function and the law's operation need your cooperation. And your cooperation is just to walk according to the spirit.
Doctrinally we know that [Christ] is the life-giving Spirit and that He is now in our spirit.…Your peculiarity is just to live yourself, so you would reject this. You would practice to live Christ, realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit right now in your spirit. But what shall you do practically?…You have to pray all day long.…At anytime and anywhere you must always pray from your spirit, saying, “Lord, live in me. Lord, live out of me.” This brings us to the very crucial point—you must practice to live Christ. This is not a doctrinal matter; this must be a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment practice. Do not say something without praying, “Lord, You say it. I am going to say something to this man. Lord, You say it. You be my life.” Pray every moment in anything, in everything, and everywhere. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training, “pp. 360, 364, 150)
Today's Reading
All the time you have to pray, “Lord, live through me. Lord, live through me.” At work, in your kitchen, doing your laundry, pray, “Lord, live through me.” We all need to practice this.…Some top pianists may practice as many as fifteen hours a day.…We need to practice…twenty-four hours a day to live Christ.…Paul says, “To me, to live is Christ…that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…to know Him.” This is his aspiration for his practice of living Christ. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training, “p. 152)[To unceasingly pray] is to have uninterrupted fellowship with God in our spirit. It requires perseverance (Rom. 12:12; Col. 4:2) with a strong spirit (Eph. 6:18). (1 Thes. 5:17, footnote 1)
According to the Lord's word in Matthew 26, we are all sleepy persons. If you do not sleep physically, you sleep spiritually. And many times you sleep psychologically. While I am speaking, some may be sleeping physically, and others are sleeping psychologically. This means that their mind and their attention and their hearing and their realization are absent. Sometimes you are sleeping spiritually. This means that your perception is dormant. To be a person who prays unceasingly, you must be a watchful person, a person fully awakened, fighting against your sleeping nature and your sleeping being. How do you fight? By petitioning. Prayer is a general thing; petition is a special, particular thing. You have to watch unto the general prayer by special petition.
First Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Unceasingly pray.” Now you understand how to pray without ceasing—just be watchful. To be watchful helps you to build up a habit of prayer. The ultimate and consummate conclusion of all the charges in the Bible is that we need to live Christ and walk in the spirit. It is not to love this or love that, nor is it to do this or to do that. The final word is to live Christ and to walk in spirit. We need to do this by the way of watching unto prayer in all petition. There is no other way that we can live Christ continually, and there is no other way that we can walk in spirit. Actually, here the word walk equals the word live. To walk in spirit actually means to live in spirit. So to live Christ is a matter of living in spirit. This can never be possible unless we have a prayer life with a continual watching in all petition. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training, “pp. 160, 162)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training, “chs. 13-14, 30-31, 36