Sometimes when I want to share something in the meeting, I’m not sure if it is from my spirit or from my soul.
If you release it in the spirit, it is something in the spirit. If you keep it within you, it may become something in the soul. It is not necessary to analyze that way. It is better to exercise your spirit to release what you want to share than to keep it within.
Is there any way to share the truth without getting into arguments?
Arguments lead nowhere. Especially with our relatives, we must avoid arguing about doctrine. If they raise a doctrinal point, we can steer away from it and give instead a testimony of our experience of Christ. Let them know how joyful our life is. Our relatives not only need such a verbal testimony from us; they also need to see such a testimony lived before them. This living has the strongest impact. We need much more experience of Christ daily. This will make our testimony brighter and will influence our relatives, as well as others, to take this way.
What should we pray for? Last year in college I prayed nearly every day for fifteen people; it was an exhausting labor. The other brothers and sisters were praying for the same people, but none of them has been added.
The best way to pray is according to John 15:7: “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall come to pass to you.” The way to pray is to abide in the Lord, remain in Him, and be one with Him. Then our praying will not be according to our preference, but according to His Word. When we abide in Him and His Word abides in us, we have His abiding Word to pray about. Then, as we open to Him, He moves within us, and we pray whatever we sense within.
It is hard to tell you what to pray. Just contact the Lord and be one with Him. Once you have taken His words into you and are actually one with Him and He with you, there will be a consciousness deep within you. Pray according to that sense.
Many times, as we begin to utter the words of prayer, more of a sense will come. The inner sense becomes our prayer uttered in words. If you still have a burden to pray for many things, don’t adjust yourself. Be simple, not bothered by any way. Go to the Lord, contact Him, and, as He leads you, utter the words according to your inner sense. If, at the same time, you still have a burden to pray for certain people, for certain situations, for the church, or for the Lord’s recovery, just utter that burden. Don’t analyze whether your burden was initiated by you or by the Lord. Be simple.
Pray until you have an inner restraint, telling you not to pray for a certain matter. If you have no such restraint, feel free to pray according to your burden. Do not pick up something as your burden. Praying is just coming to the Lord and then uttering the prayer according to the sense He gives you.
While the New Testament refers to the law of liberty, Mosaic law was really a law of bondage. As soon as we are given a law, we find that we cannot keep it (see Rom. 7:7-9). A missionary in China preached to his cook that we are all sinners. When the cook protested that he was a good man and had never sinned, the missionary began to talk to him about a horse. The cook needed a new horse, and the missionary’s description of the horse aroused in the cook longings to have such an excellent one. Thoughts about how he could get the horse for himself began to fill the cook’s mind. On a subsequent occasion the missionary again broached the subject that we are all sinners. Again the cook denied that he had ever done anything sinful. The missionary then asked him what had been occupying his thoughts since their previous conversation. The cook replied, “Well, I’ve been thinking about that horse. It sounded like such a good one, I’ve been wondering how I could get it.” The missionary then called to his attention what such thoughts indicated, and the cook was forced to admit they were signs of covetousness. This, the missionary then pointed out, was a sin (Exo. 20:17). Who can keep the law of Moses? It is impossible; it is a law of bondage.
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