In Ephesians 6:18 the apostle Paul charges us to pray at every time in spirit and watch unto this in all perseverance and petition. While we are persevering in prayer, we have to petition. On the one hand, we are persevering, and on the other hand, we are petitioning.
Many things rise up in our environment to swallow up our prayer time. This is why we need to persevere. When we are praying, we should forget about answering the telephone or the knocking at our door. We are busy praying. We are taking care of the business with our King. In our prayer time we should have the attitude that we are with our King and we are fully occupied with Him. Because of this, we do not have the time to answer the phone or the door. This is an illustration of what it means to persevere in prayer and watch unto prayer.
We must always rejoice, unceasingly pray, give thanks in everything, and not quench the Spirit (1 Thes. 5:16-19). Paul puts these four things together. If you want to pray, you have to rejoice. If you want to pray, you have to give thanks in everything. And if you want to pray, you must not quench the Spirit. Rejoicing always, praying unceasingly, giving thanks in everything, and not quenching the Spirit go together. If you do not rejoice, you quench the Spirit. If you do not pray, you quench the Spirit. If you do not give thanks, you quench the Spirit. All the day long, you have to say, “Praise the Lord!” All the day long, you should give thanks in everything.
Suppose that you broke a cup in your kitchen. Would you say, “Thank You, Lord, for the breaking of this cup”? It may not be normal for us to give thanks in everything. But actually, not giving thanks is abnormal. We need to become normal Christians. To be silent in the meetings is abnormal, but to be exercised and living is normal. Christians have to shout, to rejoice, to sing, to praise, and to give thanks. This is normal.
Not many of us give thanks to the Lord when negative things happen. We have to learn to give thanks to the Lord in everything—in good things, in bad things, in positive things, in negative things, in gain and in loss. If someone heard you thanking the Lord when you break a cup, they might think that you are crazy. However, when someone says you are crazy, that means that he was inspired by you. He would never forget what he saw. The Bible charges us to give thanks in everything. To give thanks to the Lord in everything is actually very normal.
We need to participate in the outpouring of the economical Spirit of power as the power from on high and the dynamic impact for preaching the gospel and ministering Christ to others (Acts 2:17-18, 33; Luke 24:49).
Our participation in the outpouring of the economical Spirit of power is based upon the Triune God as the essential Spirit dwelling in us, operating in us, living in us, making His home in us, supplying us, and filling us. We have such a Triune God working within us to carry out His career. God the Father as the Spirit dwells and operates in us (John 4:24; 1 John 4:13; Phil. 2:13); God the Son as the life-giving Spirit lives and makes His home in us (1 Cor. 15:45b; Gal. 2:20a; Eph. 3:17a); and God the Spirit dwells in us, supplies us, and fills us (Acts 5:3-4; Rom. 8:11; Phil. 1:19b; Acts 13:52). We have such a wonderful fact as a base.
All the one hundred twenty were filled with the Holy Spirit for the Pentecostal preaching (Acts 2:4). This is the outward filling with the Holy Spirit as the economical Spirit for the preaching of the gospel with the dynamic impact.
Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, the economical Holy Spirit, for the preaching to the rulers and elders of Israel (Acts 4:8).
After beseeching, all the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit for speaking the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31).
Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit at the beginning of his Christian life to receive his sight and be baptized (Acts 9:17-18).
Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit to rebuke the devilish magician (Acts 13:9-11).
For all of the above ministries in preaching the gospel and ministering Christ to others, we need the outward filling of the Spirit of power, the economical Spirit. Our participation in the outpouring of the economical Spirit of power is based upon the Triune God as the consummated Spirit dwelling in us, operating in us, living in us, making His home in us, supplying us, and filling us. But why do we not experience the outpouring of the Spirit? This is because we are short of prayer. Prayer is the bridge that bridges these two aspects together. We have the inward filling of the indwelling Spirit, but we do not have the outward power because there is no connection, no bridge, between these two things. Prayer is our bridge.
Some Pentecostal people would say that you have to fast and pray for many days for something to happen to you. But this is against the teaching of the Bible. The Bible says that when we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Spirit came into us, Christ came into us, and God the Father came into us. All three of the Divine Trinity are now in us as our life, as our essence. They have become one with our person, our constitution, our being. The Bible unveils to us that the Triune God is now within us to be our essence, to be our element, and to be our constitution, mingling Himself with us to make us one with Him. Today we are divine persons. We are the mingling of humanity with divinity.
Since this is the case, why are we so silent, so useless, and so powerless? This is because we do not touch the outward aspect of the Spirit, the economical Spirit. In order to touch this outward aspect, there is the need of a connection, a bridge, and this bridge is our prayer. We should abandon the Pentecostal concept of having to pray for many days with fasting in order to receive the power from on high. We need to pray not just for a period of many days but every day. We need to pray every day of the year. In other words, we need to pray unceasingly. We may wonder what we should pray for, but we do not need to make up our mind to pray for anything. To pray unceasingly is to have uninterrupted fellowship with God in our spirit. When we pray unceasingly, rejoice always, and give thanks in everything, this will make us “crazy.” When we are crazy, we have the power and the impact.
If we go to visit a candidate of the gospel in a religious way, we are through. To go in this way is to go as a corpse. But when we go to visit people in a crazy way, we have the power and the impact. On the one hand, we should be the most crazy people, but on the other hand, we should be very formal and proper. The real impact comes from our prayer. In the entire New Testament, you cannot find a person who received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit without first receiving the essential Spirit within. If we exercise our spirit to pray, the outpouring will be ours, making us different persons.
If we do not pray, we will be abnormal. In the past we were very abnormal, because we were not living. We have the Spirit within us, Christ within us, and God the Father within us, but we are not living because we do not pray. Only one thing today can make us living, and that one thing is prayer. We must pray unceasingly.
Ephesians 4 shows us that the church is the Body of Christ and that the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father are within the Body and mingled with the Body. Thus, these four have become one: the Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. This oneness is the impact. This oneness is actually the power from on high. As the Body of Christ, we have the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father, and we are mingled with the Divine Trinity. Through our prayer, we will be ready to go to reach people, because we will participate in the power from on high as the dynamic impact.
When we participate in the outpoured Spirit, our meetings will be dynamic, our prayer will be dynamic, our preaching will be dynamic, and our ministry will be dynamic. Everything we have will be dynamic because the Triune God mingling Himself with us is the dynamo. He is the dynamo—the “pum, pum, pum”—within us. But today we cannot hear the “pum, pum, pum.” Instead, when we come to the meeting, it seems that everyone is dying. This is according to the Lord’s epistle to the church in Sardis, in which He told them that they had a name that they were living, but actually they were dead (Rev. 3:1-2). They were not only dead but also dying. Their death had not yet been accomplished, so they were dying. We have to admit that our meetings were often dying. Even our visitation and our preaching were dying.
The key to make you living is for you to pray, and to pray mainly is to exercise your spirit. When you teach the Lord in your prayer, when you explain to Him, and when you describe a lot in your prayer, there is no impact because that kind of prayer is not the unlocking of the Spirit. We should pray, “Lord, I want to be living. Give me the impact, Lord.” The Lord in Gethsemane prayed three times, and each time the prayer was short. We all have to pray in these days, “Lord, I want to be living.” While the sisters are in the kitchen cooking or washing the dishes, they should say, “Lord, I want to be living. I want to have the impact, Lord.” Do not pray for too many things and do not explain to the Lord, because He already knows. Just petition Him and tell Him what you want according to His desire. We also need to give thanks in everything. On a dark day, give thanks; on a shining day, a bright day, give thanks. If good things take place, give thanks; if bad things take place, give thanks. This is what it means to pray.