Prayer: What It Is—and What It Isn’t | Discover How Christ Prays Within You

Prayer is not coming and asking the Lord for things. It is not coming and telling the Lord your needs. It is not coming and saying, “help.”  Prayer is nothing more than opening yourself to the Lord that you might touch him. When you touch Him, oh, a thousand things happen, but mostly you sense Christ with all his riches. Any ministry of the Holy Spirit is always Christ. Now I’ll get off the subject a little bit.

I can see in some of you developing a little bit in your sharing, a little bit of the gift of teaching. What should you teach, brother? Christ? No. If you teach Christ, you will teach a dead doctrine. I would say don’t teach it all, but in whatever you say, make sure that the Life of Christ himself is ministered. That it is Christ himself. You don’t teach about Christ.  Teaching is so easy to do, especially when it is negative. “Brother David, I just don’t feel like you are playing enough.” “Brother Jeff, you’ve got to pray more.” “The Bible says to pray. I’ll show you where it says to pray. See…pray.” “Brother, you’ve got to win souls.” Is this ministering Christ? Don’t get under the pile. If that’s where you are, that’s where you are. I’d rather see you do that than be quiet. That’s the worst thing you can do. And I am not important. I seek for the Lord, because you will begin to learn. A few years ago, this would have become dangerous. Some dear sister would have come up to you and said, “Oh, I really got blessed by that,” and you would have gone out and bought six books. on what the Bible teaches about such and such, and you would have studied it more and more. But that’s no longer true. We no longer need to do that. You will learn what it is to minister Jesus Christ. It will be He Himself that is ministered, and not about him.

Anyway, it’s the same with prayer. There is only one thing that God is pleased in, and there’s only one thing that God ever really lets come out…that’s of him…and that is Jesus Christ. Your prayer may not be, “O Lord,” it may not be “Lord Jesus, you’re sweet,” but I will tell you that prayer that is in the Spirit is something of the nature and life of Christ. I said to you once before: plug in… pipe into… tap the prayer that’s going on inside you and join with it. There is a spirit in you, and that spirit is supplication…and that spirit is Christ. If it is not Christ, it is the spirit praying something of Christ. The Holy Spirit doesn’t sit there and say to the Father, “Christ, Christ,” but there is something of the nature of the Lord Jesus that is constantly being offered up.

What is our job, brothers and sisters? Our job is to come before the Lord and open ourselves before Him, and to Him, so that we can touch the Lord.

Now, let me close with some very pointed things. I want to say again that, as much as possible, don’t get too involved with the use of your mind. A couple of brothers came to visit on Thursday, and on Friday morning, we got up and read some Scripture. I believe it was Psalm 42. We started off, and we were all feeling pretty good. We read verse 1: As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. We enjoyed that. Then we got to the next verse. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the Lord? So, when am I going to appear before the Lord? Lord, when am I going to appear before you? Then we read verse 3. My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, ‘Where is thy God?’ Lord, where are you? When we got to verse 5, it was time to quit. Why are you cast down, O my soul?

There are two or three things I would like to remark about here. That’s really not what this Psalm is talking about. If you come to “why art thou cast down, O my soul,” what shall you pray? There’s very little left for you to pray. You cannot pray, “Lord, why is my soul cast down?” Do you know what that is? That’s a question. Do you remember what brother Paul said to the sisters? He was so emphatic about it. “I forbid any woman to ask a question in the meeting.” Sisters, I am going to be so bold tonight you won’t believe it. Sisters, I say to you tonight, don’t ever, ever ask a question in a meeting. I’m really putting you under law, and I’m putting you at the furthest end of it. If the building catches on fire, it’s okay to say, “Where’s the exit?” You know, something like, “Would you like a hymn book?” But to say, “Brothers, I’ve been down and out all week. Why am I down and out?”

Sisters, why should a sister never ask a question in a meeting? Because every brother will feel that he has to answer that question. I watched this in Mansfield, Ohio. There was a group there trying to have a meeting, and a sister asked a question. Every one of the brothers felt duty-bound to answer. Even I was sitting there thinking…I had to catch myself. Forget it. All the brothers tried to pitch in and answer it.

I have just said to the sister, sisters…I have put all you sisters under the law, and I must do fair. A recent act of Congress says we cannot discriminate by gender. So, brothers, you may not ask questions in the meetings. Sisters, that’s not the place to ask questions. If the brothers feel we need to learn some scriptures, we will have a special meeting to learn them. You can ask questions there, and let there be teaching. The meeting is not the place to ask questions. “I’ve been so out of it. Why does the Lord let us get this way?” Brothers, don’t ask questions like that.

Do you know there is one answer to that? That is not reality. That is a shadow, and you are not living in reality. You may think you are cast down; your soul may be cast down, but David didn’t know what we know, and he didn’t have what we have. He didn’t have what we’ve got. That’s not where you belong, and you don’t have the right or the business being there. When you come to this passage, “Why are you cast down, O my soul,” get where reality is. You say, “Oh, hallelujah, my soul cannot be cast down. But my thinking can be cast down. Oh, my soul, listen really clearly. Do you hear me? You are not cast down!” There is no place in your praying for anything negative. We have just eliminated “Lord, help me.” We have just eliminated “Lord, give me.” Forget “Oh, Lord. I’m down, I need to be up.”

I bring you back, brothers and sisters, to the ram’s horn. They blew the proclamation that they had already won, and when they did, the walls fell down. You claim what is to be as what has been, and the walls fall down. You don’t ask for a job; you can say, ” Praise the Lord, you’ve met my needs, Father,” even when your hands are empty. You’ve met my needs. You have even asked for a job. You have said, “Lord, you know my needs, and you have met them.” Hallelujah. And you come, and you don’t say, “Lord, I am cast down. Today I’m so sad and blue. Lord, raise me up.” You come to the Lord, saying, “Listen, soul, you are not cast down. You have no right to be cast down. You must not be cast down because you’re not cast down. Satan is what’s cast down.”

You’ve got to give up the future. “Lord, thank you that you’re going to…” If you really learn this, things are going to really change. “Lord, we thank you that you’re really going to…” That’s got to go. Sure, there is a time to say thank you, Lord, for what you’re going to do. Sometimes you come to the Lord, and you don’t want to say, “Lord, I’m out of it.” So, you say, “Lord, I thank you that you’re going to give the church a strong spirit.” Don’t pray that, brothers. That would kill the meeting. You’ve got to pray where God is. He is on the throne. And where is Christ? Sometimes, you know, He’s at the right hand, but he’s also on the throne, and you know where that puts you.

But even if that’s not where you are, if your position is so low that you’re not on the throne with Him, it doesn’t matter. He’s on the throne. He is there. Tell me, where is Satan right now? He’s roaming around. Now then, I’ll ask the question again. From God’s point of view, where is he? He is already frying. He is in the pit.  Well, I’m explaining that our prayer needs to be greatly altered. No more “help,” no more “give me,” no more “Oh, Lord, why is my soul cast down?” When you come across a scripture like that, you just say the opposite of that. “Oh, my soul, you are not cast down. Hallelujah!”  Proclaim the victory, and the walls fall down. Praise God.