What is described in 5:14-17 concerning the life-giving petition can be experienced only by those who are deep in the Lord. In verse 14 John speaks of prayer that is according to God’s will. In order to pray this kind of prayer, we must be one with the Lord. If we are deeply one with Him, we shall know His will, and we shall also know the situation of the one who is sinning. Because this one is our brother, someone very close to us in the Lord, we shall know his real situation before the Lord. This matter is deep.
If you are one with the Lord and know a sinning brother’s condition and situation before the Lord, you will then know the Lord’s will and be able to pray according to His will. Because you know the Lord’s will, you will also know whether or not this brother will die because of his sin.
These verses indicate that we who have eternal life can pass this life on to others. This means that we can be a channel through which eternal life is supplied to others. We can be a channel for eternal life to flow out of us and into others. Verse 16 refers to this. In this verse the one who asks is also the one who gives life to the sinning brother. This indicates that the one who asks will give life to the one concerning whom he asks. The asker, who is abiding in the Lord, who is one with the Lord, and who is asking in one spirit with the Lord, becomes the means through which God’s life-giving Spirit can give life to the one for whom he asks. This is a matter of life-imparting in the fellowship of the divine life.
Notice that in verse 16 John speaks of someone seeing “his brother” sinning. The words “his brother” point to a brother who is close to him, someone who is so close to him that he is a part of him. If you have a brother close to you in this way and do not know whether this brother will die because of his sin, then you are not deep in the Lord. If you are truly deep in the Lord and are one with Him, as you consider the brother’s situation, you will enter into the Lord’s heart and know His will. You will know whether this brother, who is so intimate to you, will die because of his sin. Then you will know how to pray for him. You will know whether or not to pray for him to be forgiven and healed. If this brother’s sin is unto death, you will realize that you should not pray to impart life into him. Instead, you may be burdened to pray for him from another angle.
My burden in this message is to show you that the eternal life within us is real and practical. On the one hand, we can enjoy this eternal life within us. On the other hand, we can pass on this eternal life to others. We can be a channel for eternal life to flow out from us, or through us, to others. However, the experience of being a channel for eternal life to flow out to others is a deep matter. This cannot be done in a superficial way. If we would be a channel for eternal life to flow out to others, we must be deep in the Lord, and we must know the Lord’s heart by being in His heart. If we have entered into the Lord to such a degree, spontaneously we shall know the Lord’s will concerning a brother close to us who has sinned. Because we know the Lord’s will concerning the brother’s situation, we shall know how to pray for him.
Although I do not claim to be so deep in the Lord, I can testify that through the years I have known some cases of brothers who sinned unto death. A certain brother, who was very close to me, fell into a certain kind of sin. During the course of fellowship with the Lord, I had the deep sense that the Lord would take this brother away. I realized that this brother would die because of his sin, and eventually he did die for this reason. I prayed for this brother. First, I had the intention to pray for his healing. But the Spirit within me prohibited me from praying in that way. How do I know that I was prohibited by the Spirit to pray for this brother’s healing? I knew because as I was praying for him, I had the anointing within me. But when I was about to pray for his healing, the anointing stopped. It was in this way I realized I should not pray for that brother’s healing. Simultaneously, I began to understand that probably the Lord would not heal him, that he would probably die as a result of his sin. Then with much anointing from the Lord, I prayed for this brother from another angle. I prayed for the Lord to comfort him and his wife and to care for his family.
In some cases, when I tried to pray for the healing of such a brother, I was rebuked by the Lord. The Lord said to me, “You are praying according to your own wish. This brother is close to you, and you love him and want him to live longer. You are praying not according to the will of God, but according to your own desire.” Knowing that I could not continue to pray in that way, I came to realize that the Lord would probably take the brother away. This has been my experience with some cases in the past.
In 5:14-17 John shows us that eternal life is practical and can be experienced by us in a deep way. In these verses we see the need to live in the divine life to such an extent that we are absolutely one with the Lord. Then as we pray we shall know whether or not there is the anointing in our prayer. If there is the anointing, we should go on to pray for a brother according to the anointing. But if there is no anointing, we may be praying in ourselves. When we have these experiences, we know that eternal life is real and practical.