Verse 17 says, “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” Verse 17 came out of Abraham’s escorting and conducting in verse 16. If Abraham would have just said, “See You again, Lord,” and would not have escorted the Lord for a distance, the Lord would not have had further fellowship with him. The Lord could not hide what He was going to do from His intimate friend. He had to let him know what He was about to do.

Then the Lord told Abraham that He was going to judge Sodom. Actually, at this time the Lord had a real burden for Lot, and He needed someone to pray for Lot. The Lord always needs some intercession so that He can do something for others. Through his fellowship with the Lord, Abraham came to know the Lord’s intention. Because they were intimate friends, there was no need for them to mention Lot by name.

Verses 22 and 23 say, “And the men [the two angels] turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Even though the two angels left, Abraham was not willing to leave the Lord. He stood before the Lord for more intimate fellowship. Abraham began to intercede by asking the Lord if He would destroy the righteous with the wicked. This meant that he was praying for Lot. This shows that the burden for intercession comes from our contact with the Lord. Then the Lord reveals His heart to us, we know His intention, and His intention becomes our burden, which returns to the Lord as our intercession.

The Lord’s desired intention in His heart was to save Lot from Sodom, but the Lord needed someone to pray for Lot. Without someone to pray for Lot, the Lord could not act. This is the principle of incarnation. In the new creation, in the work of the Lord’s grace in salvation, there is always the need of incarnation. This means that there is always the need of someone to cooperate with the Lord. Then the Lord has the ground to do something. Genesis 19:29 indicates that when the Lord destroyed Sodom, He saved Lot to answer Abraham’s prayer.

After Abraham’s thorough fellowship with the Lord, Genesis tells us, “And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place” (18:33). By reading Genesis 18 we can see that Abraham spoke, but verse 33 says that as soon as the Lord had ended His speaking to Abraham, He went away. This shows us that the best prayer is not that we speak to the Lord but that the Lord speaks to us. We should let the Lord end His speaking to us. Then we can say amen to His speaking. We should ask, “When we ended our prayer and said amen, did we end our speaking or did the Lord end His speaking?”

Strictly speaking, the proper prayer is the Lord speaking through the one who prays. This is why we must learn to pray to behold His beauty and to inhale Him in order to express Him. If we do not know what to pray, we can groan, saying, “O Lord, I do not know how to pray or what to pray. O Lord....” Then we will have the best prayer.

We need to practice the fellowship in this chapter. We first must learn to read and pray over the Word. We also need to pray to behold the Lord and breathe the Lord as our spiritual air. Perhaps in the morning we can take ten or fifteen minutes for reading and praying over the Word. After this we need another time, perhaps five minutes, just to pray. We should open ourselves to the Lord, look to Him, and seek His face to behold Him, adore Him, worship Him, praise Him, and thank Him. If we have some feeling within which we do not know how to express, we can groan before Him. If we practice this kind of living and intimate prayer, we will be nourished, refreshed, and strengthened by the Lord not only in the morning but also throughout the day.

We need to learn to pray in this way all the time. First Thessalonians 5:17 charges us to pray unceasingly. It is only by this way of prayer that we can unceasingly pray. To pray in this way is to breathe spiritually. No matter what we are doing, we can pray in the way of spiritual breathing. We should breathe unceasingly, no matter what we are doing. Then we will enjoy Christ continuously.
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