The principle related to the place to fellowship with God is the same as that for the time to fellowship. There is no place where we cannot fellowship with God. Whether we are traveling, working, taking a walk, or listening to a message, we can fellowship with God at all times and in all places. We can fellowship anytime and anywhere.
We also need a specific place to fellowship with God. Personally, I feel that the devil has truly damaged Christians concerning this matter. Because both land and housing are expensive, people are always crowded together. Very few Christians have a room that is exclusively for prayer. We must admit that it is difficult to pray in crowded living quarters. In order to pray properly, however, a quiet place is needed. Therefore, we still need to try our best to find a suitable place.
Given this need, some people rise early in the morning to pray outside for half an hour while others are still asleep. This is one solution for the need of a place. There are some who go up to the mountains to pray since they live near the mountains. I have also lived in these conditions. In those days, a few of us would go up to the mountain every day, and we would each find a spot to fellowship with the Lord. The sweetness of this was beyond utterance.
We should not say that since fellowshipping with God is a matter in spirit, the outward environment does not matter. Even the Lord Jesus was not this spiritual. The Bible clearly says that He sometimes needed to go up to the mountain to pray. There is much to consider regarding the place for fellowshipping with God. We will learn more as we experience this ourselves.
There are procedures for everything that is done. Fellowshipping with God also has procedures. Although these procedures are not rigid, we cannot deviate too much from them. We will reap the most benefit if we fellowship with God according to the best procedures. Of course, not all procedures are the same. Different people prefer different procedures; we can speak only in a general way.
A person who fellowships with God must learn to be quiet. Being quiet is not merely to be freed from the entanglements of outward matters but also to let go of all the things that should not be in our mind, our thoughts. In other words, we need to quiet our mind.
The mind is the most difficult part of a person’s inner being to quiet. The young ones and the older ones have many thoughts in the morning when they rise. When a Christian desires to learn to fellowship with God, Satan will work very hard to inject many thoughts into his mind. Sometimes Satan injects thoughts to bother his mind and disturb his inner being. Therefore, we must first learn the lesson of being quiet so that we can have good fellowship with God. Whenever we come before God, we should not immediately pray, read the Bible, or sing hymns. Rather, we need to settle our being both inwardly and outwardly. However, we cannot be quiet for too long; otherwise, many scattered thoughts will begin to come in. This will not produce the desired result. Doing anything prior to our time of fellowship will be a distraction, and also being quiet for too long will not be profitable; we need to be balanced.
After settling down, some people prefer to read the Bible first, but most people prefer to pray. We also feel that it is best to pray first. When we pray, however, we should not pray too long, we should not pray wordy prayers, and we should not pray concerning many different matters. Our prayer should be focused on touching God and contacting Him. Of course, this prayer should include confession and dealing. When we are calm in our to contact with God, we will spontaneously sense our mistakes and filthiness. Once we have this sense, we will spontaneously confess them and deal with them before God. However, we should be careful not to pour out all of our prayer burdens before God at this time. We should simply pray until we sense that we have contacted and touched God. Then we can stop.
Once we contact and touch God, we should turn to read the Lord’s Word, the Bible. We should be careful not to exercise our mind merely to analyze while reading the Scriptures. This can be done at another time. This time is for eating. Studying about nutrition is one thing, whereas eating is another. Reading the Word in fellowship is not for studying God’s Word but for eating it. When we come before the Lord and open His Word, we should spontaneously exercise our spirit to absorb His Word and thus eat spiritual food. It is good when we understand, but we do not need to strive to understand. The less we use the mind, the better. We will easily receive inspiration by reading in this way.
As soon as we receive inspiration, while reading the Bible, we should turn the inspiration into prayer. Then our reading of the Bible will be turned into prayer. As long as time allows, we can continue reading and praying, praying and reading, thereby turning the inspiration we receive into prayer. This is the central and primary section of fellowshipping with the Lord.
After our inner being is well fed through the fellowship, if there is still time and burden, we can pray for some matters and persons. However, such prayer should not drag out too long; otherwise, it will disrupt our fellowship with God. In fact, we should learn to set aside another time each day to labor in prayer for various matters. This is different from prayer for fellowship. This is to bear the burden before God and pray for certain matters, work, and people. This is prayer more than fellowship. However, many brothers and sisters may be unable to set aside another time. Hence, after their fellowship with the Lord, they may spend some time to pray, giving themselves, their families, their work, and other people to the Lord.
At the beginning of this type of fellowship, we are always quiet. Being quiet implies worship. But at the end, there should again be some worship, praise, and thanksgiving. Therefore, one of the procedures at the end of every fellowship is to worship with thanksgiving and praise.
If the above six procedures can be done in thirty minutes, they will be done in a good and proper way. Of course, we may not be very skillful when we begin to practice. Gradually, as we acquire the skill, we will gain the benefit. The experience of others confirms this. Therefore, new believers should try their best to have this kind of fellowship at least once a day, with the best time being in the morning.
In summary, this is the way to come before God. We should be quiet and prostrate ourselves to worship God and then pray to contact Him. When we sense that we have some wrongdoings or sins, we should confess them. After touching the Lord, we can read His Word, not exercising our mind more than our spirit to absorb the Word. When we receive inspiration, we should turn it into prayer. Then we should read and pray more as time allows. If there is still time and burden, we can pray for other matters before God, committing ourselves, our families, and our work into God’s hand. At the end, we can offer some worship, praise, and thanksgiving before God. If a new believer practices this daily, his progress before the Lord will be fast, and the riches within him will increase.