Second, our prayer should not be influenced by the things in our memory. Many people have a difficult time praying because they are influenced by their memory. I have had this experience. When I rose in the morning, I would consider the things I needed to pray for in morning watch. Then when I knelt down to pray, I would spend much effort trying to remember what I should pray for, and as a result, I failed to contact God in spirit. This is wrong. We should never try to remember things to pray for when we fellowship with God. Even if we do remember something, we should let it go so that it does not interrupt our prayer.
Some people make a record of the various items they prayed for on Monday, what they prayed for on Tuesday, and so forth. This is a good practice. If a new believer can practice in this way, it will be beneficial. This type of prayer, however, is not focused on our fellowship with God. The prayer that we are speaking of is related to fellowship with God. In this kind of prayer we need to forget everything. We do not need to remember any prayer burdens, such as prayer requests that we have received or promised others. This is not necessary. We must view prayer in a very simple way. Whether or not we remember certain items for prayer is of no consequence. We need not focus on any items we may remember.
Third, we should not compose sentences; that is, we should not focus on the wording of our prayer. It does not matter whether our words are disorderly, disconnected, or even incoherent. We should simply utter the words as they come. However, those who are learning to pray should learn how to speak before God. We will speak concerning this in the future. Presently, as we are learning to fellowship with God in prayer, we can ignore matters of wording and phrasing and simply speak spontaneously. It is not important whether our wording is accurate as long as we fellowship with God.
Fourth, we must rely upon the precious blood of the Lord Jesus and learn to apply the effectiveness of His blood. Experience shows that when we pray according to the above points—not being pretentious, not praying according to memory, not caring about the wording, but praying spontaneously before God—it will be easy for us to sense our sins. This is a certainty. If we are pretentious and try to remember the things that we need to pray for, the feeling of being sinful will dissipate. If we contact God in a simple and spontaneous way, we will definitely sense within that we are sinful and have problems and faults. When this sense comes, we should learn to rely upon the precious blood and ask for God’s forgiveness based on the effectiveness of the Lord’s shed blood.
We must confess our sins in order to rely upon the precious blood for God’s forgiveness. The more we confess, the more we will touch God, and the more thorough our confession, the deeper we can enter into God. However, we need to be careful not to ask, “Have I sinned? Did I sin yesterday, the day before yesterday, or this week?” This is introspection. Confession that comes out of introspection has no spiritual value.
Both in the East and in the West those in religion advise people to examine themselves. Chinese sages say that we should examine ourselves three times a day. Many revivalists and spiritual men in Christianity speak concerning introspection. They use the only verse in the Bible, Haggai 1:7, that speaks of considering one’s ways, as the basis for advising people to examine themselves. However, experience has proven that introspection is harmful to a Christian’s spirituality. When a person wants to draw near to God, introspection is an interruption, a hindrance. Confessing our sins during our fellowship with God does not depend on introspection; it is altogether a matter of a spontaneous feeling. If we do not feel that we have sinned, we do not need to examine ourselves. When we feel that we have sinned, we should confess that sin before God and ask for His forgiveness through the precious blood. This point is very important.
When learning how to fellowship with God, many believers neglect confession and therefore never learn to fellowship in a proper way. In the so-called “Charismatic movement,” those who were revived were blessed through confessing. They knew that confession could help them touch God. However, they did it excessively, and it became harmful. When we practice confession in our fellowship with God, we should neither neglect it nor be excessive. We should confess in a spontaneous way. This matter is truly important and profitable.
Because there was no one to lead us in these important points concerning fellowship, we groped for many years, going in circles and wasting much energy with no progress. Gradually, we began to consider this matter and learned from other people’s experiences. We have spent twenty to thirty years thoroughly and accurately considering the matter of fellowship. I know the condition of fellowship. When we come before God without being pretentious or memorizing the things we need to pray for and we simply place ourselves before Him and let the Holy Spirit shine in us, He causes us to sense and see certain sins or mistakes that we have committed. At that time, we should confess the sin according to this sense. We should confess only as much as we sense. We do not need to take care of what we have not sensed. While confessing, we need to receive the precious blood, rely on the blood, and apply the effectiveness of the blood. If we continue praying in this way, we can be assured that we will touch God’s presence and contact Him.