THE GOD-MAN LIVING

MESSAGE TEN

THE FIRST GOD-MAN’S LIVING
A MAN OF PRAYER

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Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:12-14, 8; John 10:30; Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32; 1 Pet. 2:23b; Luke 23:46; John 14:30b; Matt. 3:13—4:11; 6:5, 16; 17:21; Acts 13:2-3

OUTLINE

1. A man of prayer:
   1. Not as a common man praying common prayers to God.
   2. Not as a pious man, a so-called godly man, praying to God in a religious way.
   3. Not as a God-seeking man praying to God for the divine attainments and obtainments.
   4. Not even as merely a Christ-seeker praying desperately to gain Christ in His excellency—Phil. 3:12-14, 8.
   5. But a man in the flesh praying to the mysterious God in the divine, mystical realm, and a man who is:
      1. One with God—John 10:30.
      2. Living in the presence of God without ceasing—Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32.
      3. Trusting in God and not in Himself, under any kind of suffering and persecution—1 Pet. 2:23b; Luke 23:46.
      4. And in whom Satan, the ruler of the world, had nothing (no ground, no chance, no hope, no possibility in anything)—John 14:30b.
2. The divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man in the record of the synoptic Gospels concerning the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens, the Slave-Savior in God’s gospel service, and the Man-Savior in God’s salvation:
   1. After His baptism in the water, and God’s anointing from the heavens with the great commission for Him to bring in the kingdom of the heavens to the earth, He, under the leading of the Spirit, went to the wilderness to fast forty days and forty nights—Matt. 3:13—4:11:
      1. He should have felt that:
         1. His Father’s divine commission to Him concerning the kingdom of the heavens was a great and critical burden to Him.
         2. He needed to seek His Father’s counsel concerning how to bring His Father’s kingdom in the heavens to the fallen Adamic race on the earth.
      2. According to the common practice of fasting, it is always accompanied by prayer—Matt. 6:5, 16; 17:21; Acts 13:2-3.
      3. But there is no mention of prayer accompanying the first God-man’s fasting, not only in forty days but also in forty nights.
      4. We should believe that there should have been such an accompanying prayer, but it is kept in secret as a mystery and it is impossible for us to know what the content was.
      5. This indicates that the first God-man’s prayer was in the divine, mystical realm.