Ezekiel 36:37 says, “Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”
Jeremiah 29:10-14 says, “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”
We have seen the meaning of prayer; now we come to the principles of prayer. We will point out ten most important principles of prayer. Any good prayer, any prayer of worth, any prayer that is up to the standard, must be in accordance with these principles.
Concerning the principles of prayer, we must first see that prayer should not be initiated by man but by God. Any prayer, even our confession of sins before God, should be the result of God’s working within us. When we pray to confess our sins before God, apparently we are confessing our sins to God according to ourselves, but actually it is God within us initiating such a prayer. Unless the Holy Spirit works within us, we can never go before God to confess our sins. Whenever a person goes before God to confess his sins, it is because the Spirit has initiated this matter in him-urging him, moving him, and causing him to sense his offenses and his need to confess them. In fact, every kind of prayer which we pray should be initiated by the Spirit of God.
If you search through all the experiences of prayer, you will discover that every such experience that can be counted as prayer before God is never initiated by man according to himself, but by the Holy Spirit within man. Any prayer that is started by man on his own is not in accordance with this principle. This is a very serious matter. Unless our prayers are initiated by God from within us, you and I can never have a prayer before God that is acceptable to Him, or prayer that touches His intent and even touches His throne. Thus, strictly speaking, any prayer that is not initiated by God within man, but is merely of man’s own initiation, cannot be counted as prayer before God. If we bear this principle in mind, we will be greatly corrected and trained in the matter of prayer.
A prayer that measures up to the standard is surely one in which God passes through it. Prayer is not only initiated by God, but God also passes through it. While you are praying, God passes through you and also through your prayer.
This is somewhat like a person speaking in front of a microphone. Electricity passes through the words he speaks. The sound which is heard by those who sit afar has the passing through of the electricity. If he did not use a microphone his speaking would be purely words without the passing through of the electricity. In a sense, it is the same with our prayers. Sometimes it seems that we go before God to pray, but actually it is just we ourselves who are praying-without God passing through. But there are also times we deeply feel that every sentence in our prayer has God in it-God has actually passed through our being. Ordinarily when this condition exists we say that our prayer has touched God, or that it has touched the presence of God. But this does not precisely describe such an experience. It would be more accurate to say that God has passed through our prayer as well as through our being. Brothers and sisters, please review your past experiences. You will see that every prayer you prayed which was of real value before God was one in which God passed through you-God’s essence, even God Himself was in your prayer, flowing through your prayer, and also through your being.
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