Pray About Your Praying,
How Do You Pray?

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!