Speaking with diffidence, yes, almost with fear and trembling, I must say that there are prayers that quench the Spirit; there are prayers that bind the prayer; there are prayers that bear in themselves the seed of their own defeat; there are prayers that have the form of godliness, but in their very utterance they deny the power thereof. These prayers that are mere empty forms are sooner hindrances than helps that promote the life of the spirit. Prayer that is formal never prevails. That which is not life in the spirit is death. There is no neutrality in the Gospel. Man either serves God in Christ Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit, or he serves the god of this world. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit, that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and the flesh has in it the seed of corruption. Let us analyse our prayers, let us pray for our prayers, that our prayers may be sanctified so that we may worship Him in spirit and in truth. Men cannot pray to order. Prayer originates in heaven. Prayer is the volition of a man’s spirit in harmony with the Spirit of God. Prayer is the interpretation of the will of God expressed through ‘the human spirit of the man’, and unless that prayer starts its great circle from the throne of God and completes it there, and in its circle carries out the functions which are the object of its intercession, then it is a failure. Will you examine your morning prayer? How was it with us this morning? What time had we with God. Did we kneel down merely as a form, as a habit? Are we the bond slaves of custom, or are we sons of God moving in the glorious liberty of the sons of God? This morning did we pray in the Spirit? Those words that fell so glibly from our lips, did they originate in the mind, or were they the outcome of the Spirit? When we left the silence of the inner chamber this morning, did we leave with the consciousness of the unity of the spirit with Christ, of fellowship with His Spirit? Was there a liberation of our spirits, so that when we left the secret chamber we came out as a strongman to run a race, and as the sun that goes forth upon his journey? And the evening prayer: Was our prayer last night the result of our intelligent spiritual watchfulness? Remember that we are taught to watch and pray. How much intelligent observation of the spirit throughout yesterday was omitted in our prayers last night? Watch! What am I to watch? Who am I to watch? Where am I to watch? I am to watch my own spirit as it moves out in harmony with the Spirit of God. I am to watch the providential circumstances of His grace and of His mind, opening one door here, closing another there, giving liberty here, and straightening within a narrow path there; I am to watch the movements of God. Paul was a great watchman. “I would have come,” he said, “but Satan hindered.” I went to Jerusalem, but I was ‘‘bound in spirit.” That man of God had been so trained in the prayer life that he watched his spirit. And we want to watch—to watch God, to watch our spirit, to watch our threefold enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil. If in the prayer life of the family there is no life, there is death, and death is contagious. I cannot get physical life from any of you, but if there is one who is suffering from a contagious disease, we can all catch death from that single person. There is a form of subtle selfishness that may creep into our prayer life, so subtle as for us to be almost unconscious of it; but nevertheless, if not thwarted and killed by the Spirit of God, it will kill our prayer life. Let us analyse our prayers. Is the motive pure—pure in its inception? I must stand with God—I must become a co-worker with Him against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age. There is a prayer of petition, and there is a fighting prayer. Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, when he finished his race, did not say he preached a good sermon. He said: “I have fought a good fight.” The Holy Spirit is in the world to convince of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He is here, He is working in the world today, and it is our privilege to co-operate with Him to the pulling down of Satanic strongholds in the lives of men; and for this our weapons are not carnal. You cannot achieve this by fleshly weapons. It is with spiritual weapons that Satan’s strongholds are pulled down. “I pray not for the world,” said Jesus, “but for these.” These! Has it ever occurred to you that there is a great economy in praying for the Church? Jesus said: “I pray for these”—these are the channels of my power; these are the vehicles of my grace! How much do we pray for the saints of God? How much do we pray that the Church of God may be awakened in these last days, and that prayer may be a mighty flood sweeping through the land until the will of God is brought about, and the will of His adversary is destroyed. I pray not for the world, but for these! Jesus loved the world, and wept over it, and our hearts are filled with pity for the world, but pity will not save. It is the mighty power of a quickened and spiritual Church rising in her own spirit might, not with any carnal weapons, but clothed in the whole armour of God; with the sword of the Spirit in hand, and the prayer of the Spirit in the heart, going forth not to be conquered but to conquer; going forth in the Might of Him who ever sits at the right hand of God, making intercession for us who are His Body. Beloved, beware of the prayers that hinder, beware of the prayers that are dead, beware of the prayers that are formal, beware of the prayers that are born in the head, and never touch the heart. For believe me, any prayer that does not burn in your heart and mine, will never burn its way into any other heart for whom we pray!J. C. Williams

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us . . . .” Deut. 29:29. We can see that this law applies to daily situations. It also affects a common evil that is called “suspicion.” Suspicions are thoughts that are occupied with things one doesn’t know, thoughts that maintain things that have not been revealed, and consequently, one doesn’t know. Someone who entertains suspicious thoughts about something acts accordingly. These are works of darkness. Suspicion is judgment without light, and it is always evil, whereas light itself is the true judgment. God’s gems, His precious truths, are mostly hidden to people; yet they do not belong to darkness because they are not hidden because of their nature, but because of man’s sinful nature. Seeking for the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ Jesus is good and prudent, for the fact that I desire these treasures to be revealed to me is the same as seeking light, for everything that is revealed is light. Eph. 5:13. The connection is that whatever is hidden to me at the moment is not meant for me at that moment, which means that I ought not to have an opinion about it. Nevertheless, there can be much of what is hidden to me at the moment that is meant for me—even pre-determined for me before the foundations of the world were laid—and which, in due course, will be revealed to me. Concerning suspicion, it is certain that one usually has no idea how active it is, seeing that we have to deal with innumerable opinions about all kinds of things and about all kinds of people. Many people will say, “You have to have an opinion, but of course it is important to see everything in the best light.” This is wrong, for one doesn’t have to have an opinion about what is the best. You can quite simply answer yourself when thoughts arise about this or that: “You don’t know that.” The best opinion, even the only good opinion I can have about something, is the actual opinion. If I don’t know it, I ought not to have an opinion, and so I can keep myself pure from unspeakably much. It is extremely rare to receive the answer that one doesn’t know “anything about it.” If we were always truthful, sober, and prudent, we would often have to answer: “I don’t know that.” Or, for example, when someone asks, “What is your opinion?” we could answer, “I have no opinion about that.” One more point regarding this matter: “But he who is spiritual judges all things.” 1 Cor. 2. There are situations where nothing has been revealed to most people and where it seems that nothing can have been revealed to anyone, but something can have been revealed to a spiritual person. Then he has a right to have an opinion—a thought—which is not a suspicion, whereas the others cannot rightly have an opinion because it is hidden to them, and thus it is not for them. The usual words about not knowing what dwells in someone else’s heart are therefore not correct, because the spiritual person also judges things that are usually hidden to people. He can do that because God reveals it to him. However, this law also applies to the spiritual person: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us,” so he also should not have an opinion about something when God has not revealed it to him.Elias Aslaksen

A heavenly host praised God and said, “On earth peace . . . .” Luke 2:13-14. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” Matt. 10:34. Which is true, the one or the other? In Galatians 5:19 and 20 it is written that factions are works of the flesh; i.e., they are sin. However, in 1 Corinthians 11:19 we read that there must be factions among us so that those who are genuine can be revealed. This tells us that factions are necessary and beneficial. What is right? The first or the last? “Judge not . . . .” Luke 6:37. “But judge . . . .” John 7:24. What is good? The first or the last? “Do not labor for the food which perishes . . . .” John 6:27. “That you aspire . . . to work with your own hands . . . .” 1 Thess. 4:11. What is best, what Jesus says or what Paul says? The Scriptures have been written in such a way that there is opportunity to go astray, to go off on a tangent, or to draw back, if a person seeks an opportunity to do so. We will often meet such cases where someone with the letter of the Bible as support goes astray. God has not done anything to prevent a person from taking the letter of the Scriptures and going his own way with them, taking the letter as the basis for his departure. It is also perfectly good and right that it is as it is, because then it becomes easier for everyone to receive his heart’s desire, which is also a contributing factor to everything (every person) ending up in the place where they belong. If there was a man who desired to draw back from God’s will on a certain point, but who also at the same time held fast to the confession that the Bible is God’s Word, and if the Scriptures were perfectly understandable, without any apparent contradictions, etc., he could not find a way out for his wish, but would have to—against his desire—keep himself to God’s will. Thus he was basically not in his right place. When people look for an opportunity to depart from God’s way, they look to the letter of the Scriptures for support, and they succeed constantly. Once they have found a fitting word, they reject the rest and faithfully follow these letters into wretchedness and death precisely as the Scriptures themselves say: “For the letter kills . . . .” This is how we can understand the connection when deceptive doctrines mention the Scriptures in their defense. On the other hand, the person who seeks guidance in the Scriptures in order to leave his own way and walk in God’s will acts differently. Ecclesiastes 7:27 mentions a simple and excellent way of proceeding: “‘Here is what I have found’ says the Preacher, ‘adding one thing to the other to find understanding . . . .’” Therefore: What is true, right, and good? What shall we do, the one or the other? Both parts! Add one thing to the other, and you will learn to know God’s wisdom, and will rejoice in following it.Elias Aslaksen