The proper prayer always releases us. If we pray and our spirit is not exercised and released, our prayer is wrong. Prayer must exercise our spirit and release our spirit. When our spirit is released by our prayer, we are released persons. When we are no longer bound but released, we are always happy. This is why Paul said, “Always rejoice, unceasingly pray” (1 Thes. 5:16-17). To rejoice all the time is related to praying unceasingly.
Furthermore, if we are not released, we cannot be blended with others. If we come to the meeting with a quiet spirit, we are bound. If we attend the vital group meetings in this way, there is no possibility of our being blended. When you are released, when I am released, and when everyone is released, that is the real blending. The way for us to become blended is through prayer that releases our spirit.
Acts 1:14 says that the one hundred twenty continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer, “together with the women....” We need to consider why the Bible says “with the women” in this verse. Every word in the Bible is written with a purpose. I hope the sisters would give me the permission to speak a frank word. The one accord is always troubled by the women. When the sisters have no problem in the church, the church will most likely have no problem. In the church life there are generally more sisters than brothers. In the home in Bethany spoken of in John 12, there were two sisters and one brother (vv. 2-3). We can see from this that the church life greatly depends upon the sisters. When the sisters are okay, the church life will most likely be okay. The vital future of the vital groups greatly depends upon the sisters. If the sisters are blended, the blending of the groups will be successful.
In order to be blended, all of us need to release our spirit in our prayer. We may pray together without being released in our prayer. Instead, all of us may be bound. Most of the good composers of long prayers are sisters. Few among the brothers would pray long prayers full of explanations and descriptions. I would advise some of the sisters not to pray that many times. Also, we should not pray too fast because the saints will not be able to follow our prayer. Paul indicated that we need to pray in a way that the saints will be able to say “Amen” to our prayer (1 Cor. 14:16). We should pray so that others can hear our prayer, understand our prayer, realize our prayer, agree with our prayer, and thus say “Amen” to our prayer.
I realize that all of us in this training love the Lord. To find a group of people loving the Lord and loving the recovery so much is a treasure. But we have all been annulled by our shortcomings. We all have our particular shortcomings which annul us and forfeit our proper function. We all have defects which prevent us from being fully profitable to the church. But in spite of all our disadvantages, the Lord is still with His recovery.
Our cooperating with the Lord to move to Russia has been a great encouragement to me. Within less than one year we raised up churches in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Lord has blessed us with the laborers, with the material supply, and with the fruitful result in His move in Russia. This shows that in spite of all of our shortcomings and defects, the Lord has still blessed His recovery.
I appreciate that all of us love the Lord’s recovery. If we did not love the recovery, we would not be here. But we need to see that in the seven epistles to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the first dealing of the Lord is concerning the recovery of the first love (2:4). Do we love Him? Surely we do. But do we give Him the preeminence, the first place, in all things? To give the Lord the first place in all things is to love Him with the first love, the best love. In order to give Him the preeminence, we must be willing to be adjusted, to be broken, to be made nothing, so that the Lord can have a way in us, through us, and among us for the building up of His organic Body.
In this message I would also like to recommend Hymns, #846. It will help us to read, pray, and sing this hymn:
Oh, may my spirit flow,
Oh, may it flow!
I ask Thee, gracious Lord,
Oh, may it flow!
My trust in self o’erthrow,
Down from self’s throne I’ll go,
That living water flow
In spirit, Lord.
Oh, may my spirit flow,
Oh, may it flow!
Answer my prayer, dear Lord,
Oh, may it flow!
Not just commune with Thee,
I long to builded be,
Mingle with others free
In spirit, Lord.