Part 5 (2/2)
We desire the gift of intercession, grace and power to pray aright. Our hearts must be drawn away from other desires: we must give ourselves wholly to this one. We must be willing to live wholly in intercession for the kingdom. By fixing our eye on the blessedness and the need of this grace, by thinking of the certainty that G.o.d will give it us, by giving ourselves up to it, for the sake of the peris.h.i.+ng world, desire may be strengthened, and the first step taken towards the possession of the coveted blessing. Let us seek the grace of prayer, as we seek the G.o.d with whom it will link us, ”with our whole desire”; we may depend upon the promise, ”He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him.” Let us not fear to say to Him, ”I desire it with my whole heart.”
2. ”What things soever ye desire when _ye pray_.”--The desire of the heart must become the expression of the lips. Our Lord Jesus more than once asked those who cried to Him for mercy, ”What wilt thou?” He wanted them to say what they would. To speak it out roused their whole being into action, brought them into contact with Him, and wakened their expectation. To pray is to enter into G.o.d's presence, to claim and secure His attention, to have distinct dealing with Him in regard to some request, to commit our need to His faithfulness and to leave it there: it is in so doing that we become fully conscious of what we are seeking.
There are some who often carry strong desires in their heart, without bringing them to G.o.d in the clear expression of definite and repeated prayer. There are others who go to the Word and its promises to strengthen their faith, but do not give sufficient place to that pointed asking of G.o.d which helps the soul to the a.s.surance that the matter has been put into G.o.d's hands. Still others come in prayer with so many requests and desires, that it is difficult for themselves to say what they really expect G.o.d to do. If you would obtain from G.o.d this great gift of faithfulness in prayer and power to pray aright, begin by exercising yourself in prayer in regard to it. Say of it to yourself and to G.o.d: ”Here is something I have asked, and am continuing to ask till I receive. As plain and pointed as words can make it, I am saying, 'My Father! I do desire, I do ask of Thee, and expect of Thee, the grace of prayer and intercession.'”
3. ”What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, _believe_.”--As it is only by faith that we can know G.o.d, or receive Jesus Christ, or live the Christian life, so faith is the life and power of prayer. If we are to enter upon a life of intercession, in which there is to be joy and power and blessing, if we are to have our prayer for the grace of prayer answered, we must learn anew what faith is, and begin to live and pray in faith as never before.
Faith is the opposite of sight, and the two are contrary the one to the other. ”We walk by faith, and not by sight.” If the unseen is to get full possession of us, and heart and life and prayer are to be full of faith, there must be a withdrawal from, a denial of, the visible. The spirit that seeks to enjoy as much as possible of what is innocent or legitimate, that gives the first place to the calls and duties of daily life, is inconsistent with a strong faith and close intercourse with the spiritual world. ”We _look not_ at the things that are seen”--the negative side needs to be emphasised if the positive, ”but at the things which are not seen,” is to become natural to us. In praying, faith depends upon our living in the invisible world.
This faith has specially to do with G.o.d. The great reason of our lack of faith is our lack of knowledge of G.o.d and intercourse with Him. ”Have faith in G.o.d,” Jesus said when He spoke of removing mountains. It is as a soul knows G.o.d, is occupied with His power, love, and faithfulness, comes away out of self and the world, and allows the light of G.o.d to s.h.i.+ne on it, that unbelief will become impossible. All the mysteries and difficulties connected with answers to prayer will, however little we may be able to solve them intellectually, be swallowed up in the adoring a.s.surance: ”This G.o.d is our G.o.d. He will bless us. He does indeed answer prayer. And the grace to pray I am asking for He will delight to give.” (Note C.)
4. ”What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that _ye have received_,” now as you pray.--_Faith has to accept the answer, as given by G.o.d in heaven, before it is found or felt upon earth._ This point causes difficulty, and yet it is of the very essence of believing prayer, its real secret. Try and take it in. Spiritual things can only be spiritually apprehended or appropriated. The spiritual heavenly blessing of G.o.d's answer to your prayer must be spiritually recognised and accepted before you feel anything of it. It is faith does this. A soul that not only seeks an answer, but seeks first the G.o.d who gives the answer, receives the power to know that it has what it has asked of Him. If it knows that it has asked according to His will and promises, and that it has come to and found Himself to give it, it does believe that it has received. ”We know that He heareth us.”
There is nothing so heart-searching as this faith, ”_Believe that ye have received._” As we strive to believe, and find we cannot, it leads us to discover what there is that hinders. Blessed is the man who holds nothing back, and lets nothing hold him back, but, with his eye and heart on G.o.d alone, refuses to rest till he has believed what our Lord bids him, ”that he has received.” Here is the place where Jacob becomes Israel, and the power of prevailing prayer is born out of human weakness and despair. Here comes in the real need for persevering and ever-importunate prayer, that will not rest, or go away, or give up, till it knows it is heard, and believes that it has received.
You pray for ”the Spirit of grace and supplication”? As you ask for it in strong desire, and believe in G.o.d who hears prayer, do not be afraid to press on and believe that your life can indeed be changed, that the world with its press of duties, whether religious or not, hindering prayer, can be overcome, and that G.o.d gives you your heart's desire, grace to pray both in measure and in spirit, just as the Father would have His child do. ”Believe that you have received.”
5. ”What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye have received, and _ye shall have them_.”--The receiving from G.o.d in faith, the believing acceptance of the answer with the perfect, praising a.s.surance that it has been given, is not necessarily the experience or subjective possession of the gift we have asked for. At times there may be a considerable, or even a long, interval. In other cases the believing supplicant may at once enter upon the actual enjoyment of what he has received. It is specially in the former case that we have need of faith and patience: faith to rejoice in the a.s.surance of the answer bestowed and received, and to begin and act upon that answer though nothing be felt; patience to wait if there be for the present no sensible proof of its presence. We can count upon it: _Ye shall have_, in actual enjoyment.
If we apply this to the prayer for the power of faithful intercession, the grace to pray earnestly and perseveringly for souls around us, let us learn to hold fast the Divine a.s.surance that, as surely as we believe we receive, and that faith therefore, apart from all failing, may rejoice in the certainty of an answered prayer. The more we praise G.o.d for it, the sooner will the experience come. We may begin at once to pray for others, in the confidence that grace will be given us to pray more perseveringly and more believingly than we have done before. If we do not find any special enlargement or power in prayer, this must not hinder or discourage us. We have accepted, apart from feeling, a spiritual Divine gift by faith; in that faith we are to pray, nothing doubting. The Holy Spirit may for a little time be hiding Himself within us; we may count upon Him, even though it be with groanings which cannot find expression, to pray in us; in due time we shall become conscious of His presence and power. As sure as there is desire and prayer and faith, and faith's acceptance of the gift, there will be, too, the manifestation and experience of the blessing we sought.
Beloved brother! do you truly desire that G.o.d should enable you so to pray that your life may be free from continual self-condemnation, and that the power of His Spirit may come down in answer to your pet.i.tion?
Come and _ask it of G.o.d_. Kneel down and pray for it in a single definite sentence. When you have done so, kneel still in faith, believing in G.o.d who answers. Believe that you do now receive what you have prayed: believe that you have received. If you find it difficult to do this, kneel still, and say that you do it on the strength of His own word. If it cost time, and struggle, and doubt--fear not; at His feet, looking up into His face, faith will come. ”Believe that you have received”: at His bidding you dare claim the answer. Begin in that faith, even though it be feeble, a new prayer-life, with this one thought as its strength: ”You have asked and received grace in Christ to prepare you, step by step, to be faithful in prayer and intercession.
The more simply you hold to this, and expect the Holy Spirit to work it in you, the more surely and fully will the word be made true to you: Ye shall have it. G.o.d Himself who gave the answer will work it in you.”
A PLEA FOR MORE PRAYER
CHAPTER X
The Spirit of Supplication
”I will pour upon the house of David the Spirit of grace and of supplication.”--ZECH. xii. 10.
”The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity; for we know not how to pray as we ought: but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to G.o.d.”--ROM. viii. 26, 27.
”With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”--EPH. vi. 18.
”Praying in the Holy Spirit.”--JUDE 20.
The Holy Spirit has been given to every child of G.o.d to be his life. He dwells in him, not as a separate Being in one part of his nature, but as his very life. He is the Divine power or energy by which his life is maintained and strengthened. All that a believer is called to be or to do, the Holy Spirit can and will work in him. If he does not know or yield to the Holy Guest, the Blessed Spirit cannot work, and his life is a sickly one, full of failure and of sin. As he yields, and waits, and obeys the leading of the Spirit, G.o.d works in him all that is pleasing in His sight.
This Holy Spirit is, in the first place, a Spirit of prayer. He was promised as a ”Spirit of grace and supplication,” the grace for supplication. He was sent forth into our hearts as ”the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” He enables us to say, in true faith and growing apprehension of its meaning, Our Father which art in heaven. ”He maketh intercession for the saints according to G.o.d.” And as we pray in the Spirit, our wors.h.i.+p is as G.o.d seeks it to be, ”in spirit and in truth.” Prayer is just the breathing of the Spirit in us; power in prayer comes from the power of the Spirit in us, waited on and trusted in. Failure in prayer comes from feebleness of the Spirit's work in us. Our prayer is the index of the measure of the Spirit's work in us. To pray aright, the life of the Spirit must be right in us. For praying the effectual, much-availing prayer of the righteous man everything depends on being full of the Spirit.
There are three very simple lessons that the believer, who would enjoy the blessing of being taught to pray by the Spirit of prayer, must know.
The first is: _Believe that the Spirit dwells in you_ (Eph. i. 13). Deep in the inmost recesses of his being, hidden and unfelt, every child of G.o.d has the Holy, Mighty Spirit of G.o.d dwelling in him. He knows it by faith, the faith that, accepting G.o.d's word, realises that of which he sees as yet no sign. ”We receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.” As long as we measure our power, for praying aright and perseveringly, by what we feel, or think we can accomplish, we shall be discouraged when we hear of how much we ought to pray. But when we quietly believe that, in the midst of all our conscious weakness, the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of supplication is dwelling within us, _for the very purpose of enabling us to pray in such manner and measure as G.o.d would have us_, our hearts will be filled with hope. We shall be strengthened in the a.s.surance which lies at the very root of a happy and fruitful Christian life, that _G.o.d has made an abundant provision for our being what He wants us to be_. We shall begin to lose our sense of burden and fear and discouragement about our ever praying sufficiently, because we see that the Holy Spirit Himself will pray, is praying, in us.
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