"After this
manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name... and bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one: For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever"
(Matt 6:9,13).
"For this
cause I... cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers" (Eph. 1:15).
"For this
cause I bow my knees unto the Father..." (Eph.
3:14).
"...with all
prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and
supplication for all the saints" (Eph. 6:18).
We have been occupied
with the significance of the words "Thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory", and have
been seeing that this is all now gathered up into the
Lord Jesus as exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on
high.
We want now to continue
with one more aspect of this same great inclusive truth.
The Lordship of Jesus Christ is the occasion of warfare
in prayer. In the passage in the sixth chapter of the
letter to the Ephesians, we have this simple but very
important clause - "praying at all seasons in the
Spirit". Praying in the Spirit; and you notice that,
in keeping with every other phase of this matter which we
have already considered, the connection of the Spirit and
prayer here is with ascendency. It is in the realm of
conflict for ascendency. We are very familiar with this
paragraph of the letter.
"Put on the
whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is
not against flesh and blood, but against the
principalities, against the powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies. Wherefore take
up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to
stand. Stand therefore..."
And this heads right up
to this praying in the Spirit.
This is warfare in
prayer, this is prayer in the realm of conflict, which
has the tremendous issue of the throne in view,
ascendency; and I want you to notice that, between the
beginning and the end of this letter, there has taken
place a change. The first declaration is -
"...made him
to sit at his right hand... far above all rule, and
authority, and power, and dominion and every name
that is named... and he put all things in subjection
under his feet" (Eph. 1:20-22).
Now, at the end of the
letter we have this -
"Our wrestling
is... against the principalities, against the powers,
against the world-rulers of this darkness, against
the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenlies."
In the first place,
they are seen as under His feet, fulfilling the passage
which has been much before us, Acts 2:34-35 -
"The Lord said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make
thine enemies the footstool of thy feet."
Above all rule and
authority, principalities and powers, and yet, when you
get to the end, the warfare is going on and it is in
relation to the subjecting of those self-same
principalities and powers. The meaning is perfectly clear
that, although it is true in the case of the Lord Jesus,
it has to be made true in the case of the Church. There
is something yet that has to be done to make that thing
good in another realm, to make that truth an applied
truth. The Church has to stand right into all the values
of what is true concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that has to be made good in the Church and applied by the
Church as a testimony and an effectual working thing in
the Church's life and the Church's ministry.
The
Church Related to the Throne
So here, the Holy
Spirit is seen to be the sphere, so to speak, in which
prayer of a warring kind is to be waged with the throne
in view, with ascendency in view, and this implies
certain things. In the first place, it implies that the
saints are as much related to the throne as the Lord
Jesus is Himself. It makes it perfectly clear that
ascendency is the ascendency, not only of Christ, but of
the Church. Dominion is not only the dominion of Christ,
but of the Church with Him. The enemies also of Christ
are seen to be exactly the same enemies with which the
Church has to contend. In a word, the great issue which
is gathered up in the Lord Jesus is the same issue for
the Church. Of course, that is well known and recognized,
and there is nothing new in the way of revelation about
that. But that is where we begin, namely, by recognizing
that this implies quite clearly that the saints are
related to the throne, that that is God's thought
concerning the Church, and it is in connection with that
Divine thought that the tremendous spiritual conflict
into which the Church is hurled rages. It is the throne
matter that is in view. It is absolute spiritual
ascendency in union with Christ over all hostile powers.
The
Life of the Church Threatened Because of the Throne
If that is true, and
this war in relation to the throne concerns the Church,
then it implies this second thing, that the life of the
saints, because of that relationship, is threatened. The
adversary, the hostile forces, are set against the very
life of God's people because of what is in view. These
are simple implications, but you and I have to be
mightily gripped by these implications. It is not enough
for us to know. It may be that some of you are even now
saying, We know that, we have heard that many times! I
would urge you to ask yourself whether you are really
actively in the good of this light; not whether you know,
but whether you are actively in the good of it, whether
you have come to an active position in the realization
that the very life of the Lord's people is threatened
because of the great issue which is in view; that is,
their coming to the place where the Lord Jesus is of
absolute ascendency over all principalities and powers,
to be governing with Him in the heavenlies. What does
that mean to you in a practical way? How is that working
out in your life? Oh, may I appeal to you? It is a
terrible thing for you, dear friends, to be brought up -
may I put it in that way? - to be brought up with truth
and light of this kind if it is not going to mean
anything more than that you have learned these truths as
truths. It is a terrible thing. One of the most
deplorable conditions today in this world is that there
are many who have a great deal of light but it amounts to
nothing as a power, as an effective working, as a
registration in the realm of spiritual antagonism. That
is a terrible thing, and we must, in our heart of hearts,
beseech the Lord that our hearing of things like this
shall not be a mere listening to truth, and a knowing of
things merely as they are set out in the Word of God. We
must really challenge our hearts with these things and
ask ourselves as we go along, 'Well now, I know that or I
have heard that. At least now I am enlightened about
that, but what does it mean? How is it working out? How
much do I count now that I know that?' That is the thing,
and, unless really we come to count for something, all
this truth might just as well be unknown to us. It can
only be a terrible responsibility to know without really
counting by our knowledge.
So I urge this upon
you, that here is this tremendous implication. The fact
that this is a tremendous warfare means there is a threat
to the life of God's people because of the Divine destiny
of those people in the thought of God.
The
Throne Reached by Prayer
Now, we have to
recognize that there are certain other things which
become necessary. This whole thing is headed up in
prayer. Let us square ourselves to that at once. Any
other form of activity may be more interesting. It might
appeal to us much more to talk about these things, to
preach them, to disseminate the truth or truths; but the
thing is headed up in prayer. That is where the thing
finds its expression. It is by that means the throne is
reached and the testimony of the absolute sovereignty of
the Lord Jesus is established, by prayer. When the
Apostle has said everything, he crowns it all and gathers
it all into this -
"...praying at
all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all the
saints";
and, as you know, it is
all a part of what he has been saying about the armour.
As he has been taking note of his Roman guard and marking
down every bit of his equipment, he has come at last to
see that all that armour, all that the man possesses for
offensive and defensive, counts for nothing if the man is
not vigilant, on the alert, watching. The best equipment
counts for nothing unless you are in a spirit of
activity, alert and watchful and given to this business
by perseverance. Paul sees his guard who is not going to
be caught, not going to be taken off his guard, who is
vigilant, diligent, watchful, who is applying himself,
and Paul says that for us its counterpart is prayer. Our
devotion, our watchfulness, our perseverance is in
relation to prayer, and it is all to be in the Spirit.
This soldier is in the spirit of things. For us it is the
Holy Spirit; we have to be in the Spirit about this
business. So it is all gathered up into the matter of
prayer.
The
Need for Enlightenment
Now then, if that is
true, if this tremendous issue is to be secured by
prayer, surely it is necessary that the Lord's people
should be enlightened about this matter. You see, we
shall never give ourselves to this kind of prayer, to
praying with this issue in view, unless we have been
enlightened as to what the situation is: and when I say
enlightened, I mean something more than informed. You can
inform yourself by reading the letter to the Ephesians,
but that is not being enlightened. Beloved, immediately
you and I are enlightened about a situation something
happens, and you can prove and test whether it is
enlightenment or information by the result.
Think of the world
situation today. May I illustrate? I hate to touch the
realm of things, but let me illustrate. Supposing what is
being carried out now on the Continent had all been
written in a book beforehand, as representing the plan,
the device or tactics of the enemy, and then people had
got hold of the book and read it. They would probably
have said, 'Well, that is a wonderful scheme: that is
very clever, and that is very terrible'. But it has not
come home, you see. It is in a book. They have acquainted
themselves with this thing, but it is still in a book.
But then supposing the day comes when that thing, as
being actually in operation, comes down their street,
dropped out from the clouds, the whole thing with all its
tremendous significance, that it is either victory or an
end of everything; destruction, death, total ruin and
loss, the loss of everything unless it is victory. It has
come home and they are awake now, they are alive to it.
It is no longer merely in a book, it has become an actual
living reality. It has become inward, not outward. It has
touched them in an inward way by the reality of it. It is
tremendous and terrible when the thing becomes real. For
ourselves, even while we are feeling very much and very
deeply things going on over there, and already there may
be a sense of fear creeping over us, we still have a kind
of objective relationship to it, and it is still a little
difficult to put ourselves into that or put that on to
ourselves and feel that we are in it. It is still out
there. But supposing tonight it all happens; supposing
the clouds shed their hordes and the thing came right
down into your garden, and the whole thing is set up like
that, and destruction and havoc are going on all around.
Oh, we are alive to it then, it is a reality as it never
was before. Although in a way we knew objectively that
the thing was true, now it has touched us, moved us.
That is what
enlightenment means, and we can test it. We can determine
the nature of our knowledge by the effect it has upon us,
and if all our knowledge about this great conflict, this
age-long warfare and all these matters of the Church's
Divine destiny, and all that is bound up with that, is
not really moving us to prayer, it is inadequate
knowledge, it is a knowledge which lacks the essential.
To be really acquainted by the Holy Spirit with this
thing has an effect upon us.
You have that great and
beautiful illustration of this very thing in the book of
Esther. Here is the throne, and there are the Lord's
people: there is Esther; and there is Mordecai; and there
is the enemy. The enemy plots against the life of the
Lord's people. Esther is away there out of touch with
things, in seclusion. Mordecai is here and he knows all
about this plot, but he cannot do anything directly: he
cannot assail the enemy, he cannot go to the throne. But
there is one who has touch with the throne by reason of
relationship, and that is Esther. Now, what is necessary?
The necessary thing is for Mordecai to get the
information through to Esther, to acquaint her with the
situation, and to bring home to her the seriousness of
this situation, and, when once Esther is really
acquainted with the situation and it is brought home to
her with all its terror by Mordecai, then she moves in
relation to the throne.
Here we have the story
written in a picture again. The Church has to be made
aware of a situation, and has to be touched deeply and
terribly by that situation, and, as the result, the
Church must spontaneously at all costs move to the throne
in intercession about this; because it is the very life
and destiny of the Lord's people that is at stake. But
there it is, and we cannot have a detached relationship
with this terrible situation. We cannot. So it is
necessary for us to have a true enlightenment, and that
is why we read those earlier passages or clauses
introductory to the prayers of the Apostle in this
letter; for when you look to see what it is he is praying
for, it is for two things. The first is enlightenment,
and the other is empowerment, and in both cases this
praying is in relation to the calling, the destiny. That
you may know what is the hope of his calling and
then, "that you may be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in the inward man", in relation
to the calling. Prayer, you see, is in that direction, in
relation to this tremendous issue in the Church's life,
the very throne itself, ascendency over all the powers of
evil.
That is the first
necessity, enlightenment of the true kind; not
information, but a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him. I do entreat you, not caring how much
is said so long as what is said is really grasped, I do
entreat you to test the nature of your knowledge by its
practical result in your life. It counts for nothing if
there is no result, no moving. Oh, that we might have the
true kind of knowledge, that our knowledge might be of
this kind, that something results from it, and that
something a "praying at all seasons in the
Spirit".
The
Testimony of the Christ's Lordship Bound up with the
Church
Then another necessity
is that the Church must apprehend that the Head does move
through the members by means of the Anointing in relation
to this issue. It is by the Spirit that Christ moves
through the Church in connection with this tremendous
matter of His own Lordship as a testimony to be
established and applied. The Lord Jesus is not doing this
independently or alone. All through the Scripture, Old
Testament and New Testament, this is borne out in every
way, that God moves through His chosen agents and
agencies in relation to His intentions. He has bound up
His intentions, His purposes, with an instrument, and He
does not move apart from that instrument, and if that
instrument fails Him, God's purpose is suspended. I know
what problems that raises in the merely intellectual
realm, but the fact has to be recognized and we will not
argue the problem. The Lord Jesus has bound up the
testimony of His Lordship with His Church, and that
Lordship waits upon the Church for its being made
effectual. It is a fact, and to make the fact effectual
amongst principalities and powers is the business of the
Church. This thing is going to be done through the
Church, but the Church today must be made to grasp the
fact, must apprehend it, that the Head moves through His
members, through His Body, in relation to the great issue
which is at stake. We cannot sit back and fold our arms
in passive inaction with the thought, 'Well, the Lord has
purposed and He will fulfil His purpose. The Lord has
designed, and His design will come to pass, whatever I do
or do not do'. All Scripture forbids any such attitude,
and show us that, strangely enough, God takes up an
instrument.
So, coming back to
Esther again, you see she must come in and act in
relation to the nation. The thing is bound up with her
and the great word is, "Who knoweth whether thou art
not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Esther there undoubtedly represents the Church. The issue
is bound up with the Church. Supposing she had said, 'Oh
well, they are the Lord's people: He is sovereign, He
will look after His people; He cannot be dethroned from
His sovereignty, He will have His way. I need not disturb
myself, I will just trust the Lord'. Well then, the whole
object of that Divinely preserved book goes. It has no
place in the Scriptures at all, if you say that. It is
there to emphasize this one thing, amongst others, that
God is Lord and that this threatened seed are His people
and He is deeply concerned for them and their life, but
that He must have an instrument upon which there comes to
rest His own concern about this matter, and through that
instrument He saves the situation and overthrows the
enemy and brings his counsels to naught. That is the
place the Church holds, and we have to grasp that. Have
you grasped that?
There is a sense in
which God is impotent, the Lord Jesus is impotent, while
His Church does not function, and the fact that He is
Lord, far above all, remains a fact remote from things
until the Church comes in and applies it and makes it
effective. It remains there as a fact in Himself. It has
to be brought out from Himself into expression and the
Church has to know that. You and I have to know that.
Paul is a great example
of this himself, He knows all about the Divine eternal
purpose, the thing purposed from before times eternal.
Paul might well have said, 'Well, what can I do in that
matter? That is settled from eternity. It will make no
difference either way what I do'. But no! here is the man
who knows it all, getting on his knees and saying, 'I
cease not to pray for you in relation to this thing. I
pray unceasingly'. Here is the intercessor in relation to
the thing which exists in God as a settled matter, but
which needs intercession for its being made effectual. 'I
pray': and then he says to the Church, 'Look here, you
must pray, you must step into that position between the
eternal purpose and its realization, you must stand in
that gap for God and with God, to pray this thing through
against all the forces of evil'.
Boldness
in Access
Then, beloved, as a
necessity to this ministry, this intercession, you and I,
the Lord's people, must have perfect assurance of our
access. It is that which the Apostle mentions, as you
notice, in the third chapter of this Ephesian letter,
verse 12 -
"...in whom we
have boldness and access in confidence through our
faith in him."
There must be nothing
whatever in us of that uncertainty which stands outside
and wonders if peradventure we dare draw near. No, the
Apostle says that in this ministry we have to have
perfect assurance that we have access. We must have
confidence, we must have boldness in access. It is a very
important thing that. You know quite well that one of
those - shall I use the phrase? - "Fifth
Column" tactics of the enemy is in some way to sap
your assurance in your approach to God. Is that not true?
Well, if by accusation, by bringing up something in your
life, something that has happened, some mistake, some
"slip up", he can interfere with your sense of
acceptance, he has paralysed you in the warfare of
prayer. By any means, he will seek to put a dead hand
upon that confident access, that boldness in coming to
the Lord. Blessed be God, the provision is here. "We
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our
sins" (Eph. 1:7); and then we have boldness in
access. The Blood deals with all that, it is the ground
of our confidence. But oh, watch against that movement of
the enemy, secretly and subtly, not in the open at all,
where he is trying to affect your boldness, your
confidence, in the matter of access.
Esther was afraid to go
in to the king. That will not do and Esther had to come
to the place where she gathered up everything and said,
'I am going in and if I perish I perish'. We can go
beyond that surely and have no fear. If we know the
virtue of the Blood, we can have boldness and confidence
in access. "Let us draw near in full assurance of
faith" (Heb. 10:22). But mark that, watch it, watch
it carefully - the necessity for this sense of assurance
in our coming to the Lord, and let us brush aside every
interference with that confidence. Let us apply the Blood
to everything that the enemy would bring up to interfere
with that confidence, and let us come with boldness to
the Throne of Grace. There are tremendous issues at stake
and any kind of uncertainty here jeopardizes those
issues.
The
Fellowship Of His Sufferings
Then one other thing.
This kind of ministry, this kind of warfare in prayer,
has to have a lot of discipline behind it. Really it is
not a thing for novices. Anybody cannot enter into this.
It is not a thing that you can take up because you see it
as something to be taken up. It can only really be
entered into when you know something of the fellowship of
His sufferings Paul says, "I... fill up on my part
that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my
flesh for his Body's sake, which is the Church"
(Col. 1:24), and that is a necessary background to this
kind of work. Now you say, 'We are ruled out, we have not
got it. We are too young'. I want to say this to you,
that it is unto this very end that the Lord will deal
with you, that He is dealing with you. If He is making
you to know something, even in a small way, of suffering
together with Him, of the fellowship of His sufferings;
if He is working in you the work of His Cross, emptying
you, breaking you, undoing you; if He is working at all
in you that which in your experience is not pleasant to
the flesh, and you are feeling the pressure of His
dealings with you, remember, it is all to bring you to
the place where you can intercede with Him; for no one
really intercedes effectually in whose heart the thing
has not become a real agony, a real concern, a travail.
We have to come to the place where the Lord's interests
in His people, the life of the Lord's people, is a real
concern to us in order that we should be intercessors,
and it is unto that the Lord is working in us. If we have
tasted a little of this thing, if we have known the fury
of the oppressor, if we have known spiritual suffering,
if we have really in any measure come into the antagonism
of the enemy, we are able to feel for the Lord's people
and we are able to pray intelligently. So the Lord would
seek, by His dealings with us, to bring us into the place
where we can prevail in prayer. Remember that. That is
what He is doing in us to make us one with Himself, with
regard to the sufferings, the need, the peril of His
people, to intercede effectually on their behalf.
I think of Esther
again. She is much in my mind as I am speaking. She had
to have a year's preparation for that intercession, and
six months of that was with bitter aloes, and that speaks
very loudly. Yes, we have to know something of the death
of the Lord Jesus in our own experience, something of the
bitterness of the emptying of the self life, an undoing
of our own strength in order to come to the place of
prevailing, of real effectual warfare. It is those who
have most deeply known fellowship with the Lord in
suffering, who have felt His hand upon them most heavily,
who are able most effectually to cry to the Lord and to
intercede for others. It is the price of a great
ministry, beloved, and we must recognize that it is unto
that ministry that the Lord has really to fit us.
A
Call for Utterness
Now, I am going to
close with just one other word. This ministry, this work,
this warfare in prayer, is going to cost us everything.
We had better face it. It is an utter position, a matter,
in effect, of really taking our very lives in our hands.
That is to say, we cannot effectually wage this warfare
if we have any of our own interests to preserve. Oh, you
see, there is all the difference between going into our
room and praying, and our meeting the enemy's mighty kick
back to our prayer. They may be two different things
because you may take it if you are coming into this, the
enemy is going to mark you, and all that you have is
going to be involved in this. If you have personal
interests, well, you are going to be put out of it at
once. It is the case of Gideon again and the sifting down
of that mighty host. 'Those of you who are afraid, well,
you had better go home. You are out of the fight.' 'Those
of you who are concerned for your wives, children and
homes, you had better go'. And then the last issue:
'Those of you who have your own personal interests to
serve, likes to gratify, you had better go home'. It is
only those who have gathered everything into this, and
who say, 'I am in it and all that I am, all that I have',
in it in an utter position, it is only those who can wage
this warfare; and they are the overcomers, they are the
ones who come to the throne.
You see, while the Lord
would be gracious, and the Lord could give His
protections and preservations, He requires on our part
such a position and attitude as will give the enemy no
ground to play with. If you and I have got some personal
interest, we are thinking all the time, 'Oh, I had better
not go for the enemy too strongly, he might touch that'.
Be sure he will and he will put you out because of that,
for he knows that is your weak point. You must have
nothing like that for the enemy to play on and by which
to put you out. You have to be in with everything, as I
said, in a sense taking your very life in your hand and
saying, Well, I am in this thing and I am in it for all
and with all.
Oh yes, that may be the
dark side, but there is another side. It is the throne
side. "These are they that follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth" (Rev. 14:4). These are they
who are the utter ones, these are the glorious ones,
these are the ones set on high. Beloved, we are called
into the universal testimony of the absolute Lordship of
Jesus Christ, to the making effectual of that Lordship
now in a spiritual way, and in a literal and manifest way
throughout the ages to come. For the time being, it is a
matter which is contested, disputed, resisted by all the
hosts of evil, and into that the Church is called, to
bring that issue through to finality, and when that day
comes the heavens will be freed and emptied of all the
principalities and powers, and the Church itself will
come into that place to govern: the Church will be the
new "principalities and powers and world
rulers" - not of this darkness, but of this light.
What a change it will be! It is in that momentous issue
that we really are now, and no less a matter than that.
All our spiritual conflict has to do with that. Let us
then put it into its right place, see it in its right
relationship. There is the biggest possible issue bound
up with our spiritual conflict. But what I want to keep
particularly in view now is that this is all primarily a
matter of the Holy Spirit operating through prayer, a
Church praying in the Spirit.
Oh, let the Lord cause
it to light upon our prayer life, our times of prayer,
and lift them up from the petty earthly things right up
in this realm where the ultimate things of God are
touched and effected. The Lord teach us something of the
meaning of praying in the Spirit at all seasons for all
saints, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.