Outline
D
We need to be blended together by praying in one accord with the exercise and release of our spirit—Matt. 18:19; Acts 1:14; Hymns, #846:
１
We should pray as a corporate body, not individualistically.
２
On the one hand, we should pray in such a way that the next one who prays can continue our prayer; on the other hand, we also should listen to others’ prayers, enter into their prayers, and follow their prayers.
３
We should pray short prayers of petition and supplication to the Lord instead of long prayers that are full of explaining to the Lord and full of giving the Lord descriptions and instructions.
４
A long prayer always kills the prayer meeting; it indicates that you care only for yourself and for your feeling, not for others and not for the atmosphere and flow of the Spirit in the meeting.
Ⅴ
To serve in coordination with one another in the church is to overcome the degradation of the church by the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God through eating Christ as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the feast for the finalization of God’s eternal economy—Rev. 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 17; 3:20-21; Zech. 4:11-14:
A
To serve in coordination with one another in the church is to enjoy Christ as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit; “for he who serves Christ in this is well pleasing to God and approved by men”—Rom. 14:17-18.
B
To serve in coordination with one another in the church is to shepherd people according to God—1 Pet. 5:1-6.
C
To serve in coordination with one another in the church is to be a cheerful giver—2 Cor. 9:7; Acts 20:35.
D
To serve in coordination with one another in the church is to build the church by living a prophesying life to overflow with the flowing Triune God for the constituting of the church as the fullness of God—John 4:14b; 7:38-39; 1 Cor. 14:4b, 26; Eph. 3:19.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 18:19 …If two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens.Acts 1:14 These all continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer…
I did my best to enter into your prayers, but I could not make it. I would like to say frankly that your prayers were not prayers in a corporate way. All of you prayed individualistically…We must learn to come to a prayer meeting to pray as a body, a corporate body. To pray in the spiritual realm must be something corporate. Even in the worldly realm, to play football with eleven members on your team or basketball with five members on your team is not done individualistically but in a corporate way. I was waiting, watching, and seeking a time for over half an hour that I could enter into your prayer, but I could not see what your line or what your goal was. Everyone who prayed had his own mind, his own goal. This is altogether due to our traditional background. I hope that we all can realize that this morning we had a prayer meeting without a line, without a goal. We just came together to express our own feeling. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery,” p. 193)
Today’s Reading
A long prayer always kills the prayer meeting. A long prayer indicates that you care only for yourself and that you do not care for others. You care only for your feeling; you do not care for the atmosphere and the flow in the meeting. When we come together to pray,…we all must hold such an attitude with such a spirit that we are not the center, the flow, the line, the goal, but the Lord, the Spirit, is. Therefore, we are open—open to the Lord and open to the Spirit. If He would use us to start a prayer, maybe we would pray for just two seconds. We would not pray a long prayer to express our opinion, our feeling. Perhaps we have the inner feeling that this meeting of prayer should begin with the Lord’s mercy. Then maybe we would pray, “Lord, have mercy upon us. Thank You, Lord. Thank You that Your mercy can reach much further than Your grace.” This is good enough. The Lord just uses us this much to open the prayer meeting with His mercy.If we were following the living Spirit instantly, no one would pray a long prayer full of doctrinal points…The prayer meetings need a lot of instant, fresh inspiration with fresh points…We all would pray one after another just like a team in a ball game. The members of one team play with one ball. This morning, however, everyone who prayed had their own ball. When I came in, I did not know “which ball I should catch.”
We are here in the Lord’s training, and we are the leading ones. We are the so-called co-workers, and the entire recovery of the Lord is in our hands. Yet we, the leading ones, were holding a prayer meeting in such a way. Since this is the case, what could we expect of the church prayer meetings? From our prayer it seems that we…are merely a group of Christians coming together to pray but seemingly not something in the Lord’s recovery.
Long prayers kill the prayer meeting…Your prayer tests how long people’s endurance will last…Do you believe that when the one hundred twenty met together in Jerusalem in Acts 1, they prayed in our way? If they had prayed in this way, I am sure they would have been tired and bored after ten days.
We must learn to forget all the things that we have, all the things that we know, and even all the things that we have heard recently. Let us come together to pray with an open spirit with nothing occupying us; just come to the prayer meeting in an empty way. We should come to the prayer meeting with our whole being on the altar so that the Lord can operate within us and even expose us. We should come to the prayer meeting with the attitude that we do not know anything but that we only know the Lord Himself. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery,” pp. 193-195)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery,” ch. 10