For the sake of our prayer, we must learn to always be open to others. It is easy to open to the Lord when we pray by ourselves, but it is not as easy to open ourselves to others. We may even pray with a small group, but we may not be able to pray in a meeting. To open ourselves to the Lord and to others requires exercise and practice. This is vital. In order to exercise our spirit we need to practice until our spirit is strong enough that we have no fear before anyone or in any situation. A brother in Shanghai once told me, “When I was in a small church in a village of my own countrymen, I was able to pray freely. However, when I came to Shanghai where there are many spiritual brothers, I was no longer able to pray.” Some of us today who once were in a smaller locality also may find it difficult to pray where there are many elderly and spiritual brothers. This is wrong. We need to practice and exercise so that regardless of the place, time, situation, or persons present we can always open ourselves to pray. If we do not do this, we will be very limited in the exercise of our spirit.
Our prayer meetings are sometimes not balanced. Some of the brothers find it easy to open themselves to pray, but many are not open. This can be compared to a basketball team in which only two members pass the ball to each other while the other three are inactive. The right way is that all the members play as a team. When we come together with one hundred people to pray, everyone must open his mouth. We all come to pray, not to sit silently. There is no excuse for not praying. However, some may be afraid to pray unless they have the assurance that there will be many loud “amens” to their prayer. This is because of pride. We need to forget our pride. If we would all learn how to exercise our spirit, everyone would pray in the prayer meetings.
In certain places where we conducted a formal training, some of the saints were helped by signing an agreement that they would pray in the prayer meetings. To be regulated in this way was effective to help them to open themselves to pray. Instead of encouraging you to sign an agreement, however, I would beg you to realize that the church needs the priesthood, and the priestly service is mainly to burn the incense by praying (Luke 1:8-10). The priesthood is a praying ministry, and to pray requires the exercise of the spirit. Without the exercise of our spirit in prayer, we cannot practically be in the priesthood. Rather, we will not be able to function for the building up of the church.
A meeting in which there are no speakers yet everyone prays is more edifying and satisfying than a meeting in which a few speak and everyone else is silent. This is because a meeting in which everyone prays requires all the members to exercise their spirit. When we all exercise our spirit, the Holy Spirit has a free way to flow. Satan, the subtle one, knows that if we all exercise and release our spirit, he will be defeated. Because of this he strategically tries to choke the spirits of the saints. If Satan can choke our spirit, we are all finished and he has succeeded. Therefore, we need to fight the battle. Whenever we come to a meeting we must learn to exercise and release our spirit and always be ready to pray.
We must look to the Lord that we will be helped, adjusted, and balanced. We must learn to apply the blood, go along with the inner anointing, and be bold to open ourselves and take the initiative to pray, regardless of the place, time, and persons present. There is no need to take care of a particular situation or have an object for our prayer. We simply should open our spirit to say something to the Lord according to the inner sense. Whatever we sense deep within is what we should utter.
As Christians we may prefer to come together to listen to a good speaker, talk, or study the Bible. If we announce that a great speaker will come to our meeting, the meeting place will be crowded, but if we say that the following meeting will be a time of prayer, only a few may come. We must fight against this trend. When we come together, we should not talk much. Rather, we should exercise our spirit to pray, each one in turn. If we practice this, we will see a positive result. This is the exercise we need today.
When our work first began in Los Angeles in December of 1962, I came together with two other brothers five or six days a week for three weeks to pray from 8:30 A.M. until noon. We did not talk much, and we did not have a particular object for our prayer. We simply knelt and prayed, each one in turn. After those three weeks of prayer, we had our first winter conference. Already in that conference we began to see the Lord’s answers to our prayers. I can testify that in the years since that time, we have seen many answers to those prayers. We must all learn to practice the exercise of our spirit by opening ourselves to pray in any situation and in any kind of meeting. Our spirit must be strong, living, and ready to open with others to pray.