What is the element of the salt with which we are salted? This element is the cross. God’s coming to us is not a matter of the daily working of the cross. Rather, His coming is altogether in the oil, in the Spirit. However, our going to God requires the cross. We need the cross all the time. The salt here signifies the cross of Christ, His killing death. We need to experience the killing death of Christ in our prayer. I can testify that I have much experience of this. If my motive, intention, and heart are not pure, I am not able to pray. Furthermore, if my spirit has some kind of bias, I cannot pray either. In order to pray, my spirit must be without bias, and my motive and intention must be pure. To be pure in this way requires salt; it requires the cross.
Young people may realize that if they commit sins, they will find it very difficult to pray. But as we grow in the Lord and come to a finer stage in the spiritual life, we shall see that even a little bias in our spirit can keep us from praying properly. It is not necessary to sin in order to have your prayer hindered. Even a small amount of bias in your spirit can hinder your prayer. You may still pray if you have bias in your spirit, but deep within you may realize that this is not the kind of prayer the Lord desires. I dare not say whether or not the Lord will answer a prayer that issues from a biased spirit. However, I am assured that this is not the kind of prayer He desires.
I also know that such prayer does not have a pleasant fragrance to Him. Instead, He finds the odor of that kind of prayer very offensive. Many times our prayer has been altogether offensive and unpleasant to the Lord’s sense of smell. I believe that those saints with experience can endorse this word and say amen to it. From their experience they know that prayer which issues from impure motives or from bias in our spirit is offensive to the Lord.
By now we should be clear that for God’s coming to us the Spirit, the oil, is needed. But for our going to God the cross, the salt, is needed. Both the oil and the salt are tempering elements. The oil tempers the ointment for God to come to us, but the salt tempers the incense for us to go to God. Our prayer needs to be in the Spirit. However, the Bible in its clear portrait concerning our prayer indicates that what is needed is mainly the cross. Do you intend to pray? As you are about to pray, you need to be crossed out. Your natural being, your natural way, your natural thought, your natural desire, your natural preference, your natural choice—all must be crossed out.
You probably do not realize how many unclean elements or how much dirt there is in your being. There is dirt in your mind, in your emotion, and in your will. There may be much defilement both in your love and in your hatred. As a result, unclean elements may be expressed by your utterances in prayer. This means that even in your prayer there may be uncleanness or defilement. The prayer of some can be likened to the eruption of a volcano: it bursts forth with the release of many unclean things. These ones may feel that they are praying to God. Actually, they are expelling much uncleanness from their inner being.
In emphasizing our need to be salted, I am not saying that there is no need for the Spirit in our prayer. We do need the Spirit, but that is not our greatest need. Our greatest need is the cross, the salt. For us to enjoy God the main element needed is oil. When God comes to us to be our enjoyment, He must be the oil, the Spirit. Therefore, it is necessary for God Himself to be oil. Otherwise, there would be no way for us to enjoy Him. But for us to go to God in prayer, we need plenty of salt. We need to be salted thoroughly and absolutely.