In 1 John 1 there is the cleansing of the blood, and in chapter 2 there is the anointing. First John 2:27 says, “As for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.” The anointing is the Holy Spirit as the oil moving and working in us (Exo. 30:25). The living, divine anointing within us is the constant moving, working, inspiring, and enlightening of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. In order to exercise our spirit, we must not only apply the blood of Christ but also take care of this anointing. This means that we must go along with the inner moving and working of the Spirit.
For the sake of the exercise of our spirit, we need to learn the lesson of rejecting our natural mind and caring for the anointing. It is often more difficult to forget something than to remember it. If a brother offends us, for example, we may remember this for a long time. If we exercise our mind in this way, we will neglect the inner anointing. Instead, we need to forsake our natural mind and care only for the moving and working of the anointing Spirit in our spirit. We may further illustrate how to care for the anointing in the following way. In the afternoon we may be burdened when we remember that we need to minister the word in the evening meeting. Therefore, we may go to the Lord with the intention of praying for the meeting and the message. However, when we go to the Lord, deep within our spirit there may be a feeling, consciousness, or sense, through the moving of the Holy Spirit within us, that we should pray for something else. If at this time we continue to pray according to our memory, we will exercise only our mind in our prayer. This is wrong. Rather, we need to drop that burden, forget about the meeting and the message, and go along with the inner anointing to pray according to what we feel deep within. This is a prayer in the exercise of the spirit. We all must learn this lesson.
We must apply the blood and care for the anointing. First John is a book concerning the fellowship of the divine life. It tells us that in order to maintain the fellowship we need the cleansing of the blood on the negative side and the anointing on the positive side. Only these two—the cleansing and the anointing—can maintain us in the proper fellowship, a fellowship not only with the Lord but also with the church and with the saints. We need always to apply the blood and to care for the anointing.
First Thessalonians 5:16-22 says, “Always rejoice, unceasingly pray, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies, but prove all things. Hold fast to what is good; abstain from every kind of evil.” According to the sequence of all the items mentioned in this passage, the focus is on praying unceasingly. If we do not pray without ceasing, it is difficult to rejoice always. In order to be continually joyful, we need to pray unceasingly. To give thanks not only in certain things but in everything also requires that we pray. We need to pray by giving thanks to the Lord in everything and for everything. Likewise, in order not to quench the Spirit we need to pray. Many times the Spirit of prayer and intercession within us inspires us to pray, but we may be lazy and idle. If we do not pray, we will quench the Spirit. By praying we are able to avoid quenching the Spirit. Verse 20 tells us not to despise prophecies. Prophecies here are not predictions. Rather, to prophesy is to speak for God or speak forth God. If we pray without ceasing, we will respect the word spoken for God by any member. Similarly, to prove all things, to hold fast to what is good, and to abstain from every kind of evil also require that we pray. All the matters in these verses are focused on our unceasing prayer.
Verse 17 tells us to pray unceasingly, and 1 Timothy 2:8 tells us to pray in every place. To pray in every place is a matter of space, and to pray unceasingly is a matter of time. Regarding space, we need to pray in every place, and regarding time, we need to pray unceasingly. Ephesians 6:18 says, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” These three verses tell us to pray in every place, pray unceasingly, and pray in spirit. If we do not pray in the spirit, we will not be able to pray in every place and unceasingly. If we pray in the spirit and with the spirit, we will be able to pray wherever we are and at any time. While we are talking, eating, and driving, we will still be able to pray because our praying is in the spirit.
A certain “spiritual” teaching says that we should not take the initiative to pray, but rather that we must wait on the Lord until He inspires us to pray. It is right to say that we should never pray by ourselves; we must pray by the Lord in our spirit. However, it is not right to say that we must wait until the Lord initiates a prayer. Rather, we should pray unceasingly. There is no need to wait. The Lord has already taken the initiative, and now He is waiting for us to cooperate and coordinate with Him. Wherever we are and at any time, we should not wait. We must take the initiative to open ourselves to the Lord and coordinate with Him to pray.
When we come to the meetings, we should not wait to pray. Instead, we should be prepared to pray. None of the members of a basketball team wait to play after they are on the court. All the members take the initiative and begin to play. This is the way we should be in the meetings. To wait is to be overly spiritual. Do not wait. We should immediately open our spirit and mouth to utter something from within. The way to exercise our spirit is to learn not to wait but to open ourselves and pray unceasingly. We may take the initiative because the Lord is already waiting for us. The Psalms often tell us to wait on the Lord (Psa. 25:5; 27:14; 40:1; 130:5-6). However, to wait on the Lord and to wait to pray are two different matters. There is no verse that tells us to wait to pray. We should pray in every place and at every time.
We may compare praying to driving a car. We do not drive a car by taking the steering wheel and waiting for the car to start. Rather, everything in the car is ready, so we simply need to start it. Our prayer is in the same principle. Everything is ready for us to begin to pray, so there is no excuse not to pray. This requires much practice, but because we do not adequately practice to pray in this way, it is difficult for us to open our mouths when we come into a meeting. The way to practice the priesthood is simply to pray at every time by exercising our spirit. We must always exercise our spirit and be ready to pray.