Let us briefly consider twenty-one points concerning prayer.
The significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God Himself. Prayer is the human spirit contacting the Spirit of God, through which man absorbs God. Therefore, the significance of prayer lies not in asking God for things but in contacting and absorbing God.
Man needs to use the proper organ in whatever he does. He needs eyes to see and ears to hear. Likewise, he needs to use the proper organ to pray. The organ for prayer is the human spirit.
John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” Jude 20 says, “Praying in the Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 6:18 says, “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” These verses show that God is Spirit and that for man to contact God, he must use his spirit.
The human spirit is the deepest part of man’s being. A person who prays with his spirit contacts God with his innermost part. When a person does not contact God with his innermost part, his prayer is ineffective. Therefore, we need to learn to reject our mind when we pray. If we think too much in our mind, our prayer will be hindered. The faculty for prayer is not the mind but the spirit.
The means of prayer is the blood of the Lord and His name. It is by means of the Lord’s blood and the Lord’s name that we can contact and absorb God.
The Lord’s blood is versus our behavior, and His name is versus our person. As far as our behavior is concerned, we are filthy and altogether evil. Even our righteous deeds are like a soiled garment in God’s eyes (Isa. 64:6). Therefore, we can never rely on our good works and our virtues in order to draw near to God. If we rely on our good works and virtues when we pray, there will be problems in our fellowship with God, and our petition will seldom be heard. We can rely only on the Lord’s blood when we come before God in prayer. The Lord’s blood redeemed us from our sins before God, satisfied the righteous requirement of God, and speaks something better for us. Hebrews 10:19 says that we have boldness to enter the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus. We must rely on the Lord’s blood when we pray.
We cannot rely on ourselves when we come before God in prayer because our being is unacceptable to God. We must depend on the Lord’s name. In the parting words of the Lord in John 14 through 16, the Lord said that if we ask anything in His name, He will do it (14:14; 15:16; 16:24). To pray by means of the Lord’s name is to pray in the Lord’s name, that is, to pray in the Lord’s person. This is to pray by being clothed with the Lord, as if the Lord Himself is coming before God to pray. Such prayers are acceptable to God.
Our prayer should be according to our inner sense. We must learn to pray according to the inner sense when we come before God. We should never pray according to what we have previously decided or according to our thoughts. If we put aside what we have decided, forget our thoughts, and open our spirit with a sincere heart to draw near to God, we will definitely have an inner sense. We should pray according to this sense. If the sense tells us to weep, we should weep; if it tells us to rejoice, we should rejoice; if it tells us to praise, we should praise; or if it tells us to confess our sins, we should confess our sins. We should follow the inner sense and pray according to it.
Praying without hindrance requires a conscience void of offense. Once there is offense or condemnation in our conscience, our prayers will be immediately hindered. This is because the spirit is needed in prayer, and the conscience is the most important part of the spirit. If there is condemnation or offense in our conscience, our spirit will collapse, and we will be unable to pray. Offenses and condemnation in our conscience are a barrier between us and God, also making us unable to pray. Therefore, in order to pray without hindrance, we must deal with our conscience so that it is void of offense and without condemnation.
The only way we can have a conscience that is void of offense is by the cleansing of the precious blood of Jesus. Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us come forward to the Holy of Holies...having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” This is the reason we must pray by means of the precious blood. Without the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, our conscience will always accuse and condemn us, making us aware of our offenses and unable to draw near to God with boldness. However, whenever we rely on and apply the precious blood of the Lord, the offenses and condemnation in our conscience are removed, and there is no hindrance in our prayer. Therefore, we need to always keep our conscience void of offense. Whenever there is a sense of sin, a sense of accusation and offense in our conscience, we should immediately confess our sins before God and be cleansed by the Lord’s blood.