Colossians, a book on Christ, also has a concluding charge. Colossians 4:2 reads: “Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.” For the third time these two words watch and pray are put together in the Bible. Of course, they had also been mentioned in Mark 13:33 and Luke 21:36. But the accounts in the Gospels should be counted nearly as one because they were spoken by the Lord. But Paul repeated it in these two books on Christ and the church. This means if you are going to experience Christ, it is not altogether adequate just to have the revelation in Colossians. It is not adequate merely to have the extensive and all-inclusive revelation of Christ. After receiving such a revelation of Christ, you have to pray and you have to persevere in prayer. Don’t let yourself be subdued by anything. Don’t be oppressed, suppressed, or depressed by anything. Do not be distracted or held back or hindered by anything. You have to be persevering. So Paul says persevere in prayer.
First Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing.” Now you understand how to pray without ceasing—just be watchful. To be watchful helps you to build up a habit of prayer. The ultimate and consummate conclusion of all the charges in the Bible is that we need to live Christ and walk in the spirit. It is not to love this or love that, nor is it to do this or to do that. The final word is to live Christ and to walk in spirit. We need to do this by the way of watching unto prayer in all petition. There is no other way that we can live Christ continually, and there is no other way that we can walk in spirit. Actually, here the word walk equals the word live. To walk in spirit actually means to live in spirit. So to live Christ is a matter to live in spirit. This can never be possible unless we have a prayer life with a continual watching in all petition.
We need the Lord’s mercy. If we don’t pray and we don’t watch unto prayer in all petition, even the Lord can do nothing. When a person is sick or dying, the first step to recovery is the regaining of his appetite. The more the sick person eats the more life supply he gets. Then the more life he will have which will produce more appetite. Gradually the appetite will be altogether restored. You may consider that you are weak and that you cannot pray unceasingly; it is too hard. You have to realize, though, you are not yet dead. At the most you may be sleeping or dormant or sick. You still have life. You still are living. So don’t reject the eating. If you reject the eating today, tomorrow you may die. As long as you have a little appetite, take in a little bit of food. This will help you. Don’t despise that little amount of food. Don’t be so dormant and so restful. You have to shout a little bit; you have to cry, “Lord Jesus! I like to pray! Make me to watch!” I have experienced this very much not only in my spiritual life but also in my physical life.
In 1943 I became sick with tuberculosis of the lungs. Because it was so serious, I was confined to bed for close to a year and a half. Just to walk from my bed to a chair caused my temperature to rise. But gradually I could walk from the bed to the chair without affecting the temperature. Slowly and gradually I increased my distance of walking until after six months I could walk out of the door and into the yard to lie down under the sunshine. Day by day I added a little more time to my exercise until I was fully recovered. By 1946 I was fully recovered, and today I’m very strong because of that practice and exercise. During that time I learned to be patient and not to be disappointed. In my physical practice I was a success, and I do believe that in my spiritual practice sooner or later I will make it. I believe also that you will make it too. So let us practice praying without ceasing. There is no short cut. You must pay the price, and by His mercy you must pick up the patience. You may be defeated for a long period of time, but don’t be disappointed. Continue to practice. One day the help will come.
Let me repeat: to live Christ, to practice the one spirit with the Lord, is by the continual and unceasing prayer. To have such a prayer life, we all must learn to watch. We also must be on the alert to be awake. We have to watch unto this kind of prayer. When you discover that there is something within you reluctant to pray, you have to fight against it. When something within you tells you not to pray, you had better pray twice as much. Although you may say you have nothing to pray, Paul tells us we have many things to pray. He said to pray at every time in spirit watching in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints. Don’t say you have nothing to pray about. The church in Anaheim has over three hundred members. Pray for every one of these. Once you finish praying for all these saints, you can pray for the other churches in Orange County and then the other churches throughout the country. You can never finish your job of prayer.
We must remember Ephesians 6:18: “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit, and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” We have to admit there is much possibility for us to have this kind of prayer life because we have so much in the environment and in our own life to pray for. I have the assurance that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery do have an appetite, an aspiration, to pray. In the Lord’s recovery the saints are praying people. Perhaps when you were somewhere else in the past, you didn’t have that much aspiration for prayer, but after you came into the Lord’s recovery you began to aspire to pray. Although you may not have been successful to such an extent, still you had the desire and the hunger and the thirst to pray. Now please practice the hunger. The more you pray the more you will be thirsty to pray. I can assure you, it is not too hard. The habit of living Christ must be the habit of prayer. And the habit of prayer is not so hard to build up. Practice this yourself, and eventually you will be a good coach to help so many into this kind of praying life. I have the assurance that after a few years many saints in the Lord’s recovery will be coached into this kind of prayerful life to live Christ and to practice the one spirit with the Lord.