Outline

«　WEEK 1　DAY 2　»

　　Jude 20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

　　James 5:17 Elijah was a man of like feeling with us, and he earnestly prayed that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

　　We often speak of Elijah’s prayer [James 5:17]…Earnestly prayed in Greek means “prayed with prayer,” or “prayed in prayer.” This is a very peculiar expression in the Bible…This is what we mean by prayer of two parties. When Elijah was praying, he was praying with, or in, a prayer. In other words, he prayed with the prayer of the Spirit within him. Thus, we can say that Elijah’s prayer was God praying to Himself in Elijah. Andrew Murray once said that a real prayer is the Christ who indwells us praying to the Christ who is sitting on the throne. That Christ would be praying to Christ Himself sounds strange, but in our experience this is really the case.

　　Real prayers will certainly cause our being to be wholly mingled with God…When you pray, it is He praying, and when He prays, it is also you praying. When He prays within you, you express the prayer outwardly. He and you are altogether one, inside and outside; He and you both pray at the same time. At that time you and God cannot be separated, being mingled as one. Consequently, you not only cooperate with God but also work together with God so that God Himself and His desire may be expressed through you, thus ultimately accomplishing God’s purpose. This is the real prayer that is required of us in the Bible. (CWWL, 1959, vol. 4, “Lessons on Prayer,” p. 23)

　　Jude 20 says, “Praying in the Holy Spirit.” This means that you should not pray in yourself. In other words, it means that your prayer should be the expression of two parties, you and the Holy Spirit, praying as one. Ephesians 6:18 says, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.”…The spirit here does not refer solely to the Holy Spirit; rather, it also includes our human spirit. When we pray, we must pray in such a mingled spirit.

　　Concerning the principles of prayer, we must first see that prayer should not be initiated by man but by God. Any prayer, even our confession of sins before God, should be the result of God’s working within us…Unless the Holy Spirit works within us, we can never go before God to confess our sins…In fact, every kind of prayer that we pray should be initiated by the Spirit of God. A prayer that measures up to the standard is surely one in which God passes through it…Every time we prayed an effective prayer that touched God as well as His throne, we also felt that in such prayer we were walking in God, and even the words of our prayer were spoken in God. Both we, the praying ones, and the words of our prayer passed through God. Because of these two aspects of passing through, when we pray, we often sense God’s presence more strongly than at any other time.

　　Very few people would tell you that when you pray, you must pray together with God. But in reality, many who pray well have this experience… A good prayer is Christ in you praying to the Christ on the throne.

　　When you pray with the brothers and sisters,…while someone is praying very properly, you may sense that you have touched God in the words of his prayer and that his utterances are God’s coming forth. When we meet this kind of situation, we say that his spirit has come forth. Actually, it is God coming forth from him, for it is not only he praying there but God and he praying together. God is praying in him, and he is praying in God. He really can say, “My prayer is God and I, I and God, praying together.”…A prayer that is up to the standard is not only God passing through man and man passing through God but also man and God, God and man, praying together. (CWWL, 1959, vol. 4, “Lessons on Prayer,” pp. 23-28)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1959, vol. 4, “Lessons on Prayer,” ch. 2