How to Pray the Scriptures: Experiencing Deep Union With Christ

I want you to know I pity all you people who pray. I want to ask you, did they tell you to pray every day? You’ve been praying every day. How’s that been going, brother? Like, read your Bible every day. I’m a rebel. Some days I put that thing up on the table, and I say, “I realize that you’re made out of Moroccan leather. I don’t know what kind of cow they have in Morocco, but take the day off. I think probably John 17 is endless. She had a whole thick stack of them there. She handed them to me. I’m anxious to go through them, see what she’s talking about. I suppose it comes down eventually to our hearts, doesn’t it? And how hungry we are. I threw that out on you as a guilt trip. I hope you will plunge into this now. Do I have your attention? Then please look at what we have here. I have suddenly gone blind, and my right eye or my right lens is dirty. Let’s find out which one it is. Are you holding your breath?

Oh, this does not look good, folks. I guess it was a dirty lens. Boy, I tell you, this is not what I consider the best way to do this because it can be intellectual for you. Therefore, I would say use only the first or second page to practice this, to begin to understand, for yourself and your internals, what’s being said. But at some point, you’re going to have to make this real for yourself. You notice there’s a lot of blank paper here. This is Galatians, and I went through this for this conference. This was prepared for the conference by me. We have prayed the scripture. You take a passage like John 17, it’s all glory. It’s all other realms. There is not one word in Psalm 23, but what it’s all everlasting. But now, if you’re in First Timothy and it says, “No longer drink just water for your belly aches, but drink some wine.” You just can’t do anything with that. I’m sorry, and if you do, you’re getting out in your imagination, or you’re getting allegorical, and this is not allegorical territory. This is real. You’re going to have to skip that verse. It is not something in the heavens. Now you tell me this. Who has so quickly taken you away from the gospel? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet it is not I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me, gave Himself for me.

Who so quickly took you from the Gospel? Now, which one of those is very, very local, geographical, and temporal, and which one is eternal? Number one is what? Temporal. Number two, it was true before creation. It’ll be true after creation. You don’t want to use the one about who took you, and I have the hardest time with some of you folks. You’re going to put that in there anyway. Strange stuff that you end up with. Hagar. Cast her out. I don’t know how you’re going to make that something wonderful. Then there are others of you I have listened to as you prayed. I really sympathize with you. You really ought to get into the church. You’re just pitiful. Lord, someday I hope I’ll be blameless. Lord, someday I hope that I will be forgiven for my sin. Lord, I hope that someday my garments will be washed and I’ll be without spots and wrinkles. I really feel for you. You cannot bring things into the now. She’s a glorious girl without spots or wrinkles, washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I’m that girl, and I am washed in the blood, and I am not scarred, and I’m not old. Corinthians says you cannot be brought to trial. You can’t be found guilty. You can’t be brought to trial. You can’t be investigated. You can’t be indicted. Oh Lord, I hope someday that I won’t be indicted. Oh, brother, sister, put a rocket on and get out of this world and get where things are really real. Lord, I thank You that there is not a charge in heaven or earth that can be laid against me. Do you not know that I have worked for you and that you cannot be charged with anything? And in me, right now, you are utterly, totally, absolutely complete, and My work in you is finished. That’s real, and that’s true, and it’s true right now, and the only reason you believe otherwise is that you’ve been running around with Baptist preachers too much, who will keep you under condemnation and guilt right on up until they bury you, and then do a little bit more of it when they preach your sermon funeral.

So, I went through Galatians and took the verses that were eternal to me, but I did one more thing. Would you take Galatians 1:1, Galatians 1:3, Galatians 5, and Galatians 6 and pretend that they are written out there? Would you look at them as the way they were written? Okay, that’s one, the way they’re written. Here’s column number two. The way the girl can take those eternal statements and speak them to her Lord. Do you follow me? If there’s a question, ask it now. Column one is the little figures right there. I should have typed out the verses as they were actually written. That’s column one. I did not do that. I went to stage two. Here is stage two. This is the girl who has changed those eternal statements into her own voice and her own words. Lord, you were raised from the dead. You gave me grace and peace. Lord Jesus, You died for me and delivered me out of all this evil age. Glory is Yours forever. I am called by Your grace. I have known You and know You by revelation. Lord, You’ve been revealed to me. I am the girl, and I’m in You. I cannot be found as right in Your sight by the things I do. By the way, I don’t like this particular verse because it’s a little bit negative, but I did it anyway. I’m not right with You by trying to impress You. I am dead to the effort of trying to impress You. I have given it up for Lent. I live, but I live only as I live toward You.

Let’s not turn the page. The only reason I’m asking you to do this is for practice’s sake. Take this, build a column here, rewrite that, and let the Lord Jesus say it to the girl. Are you following me? Then you will create another column and write it out. Same thing. Here’s your column one. These are the verses as they appear in scripture. Here’s column two, the girl speaking to the Lord. Here’s column three, the Lord speaking to the girl. Here’s column four. It’s the Lord Jesus speaking to the Father. Father, I rose from the dead, and she rose with me, and your peace that You gave to Me, I’ve given to her. And the grace You’ve given to Me, I’ve given to her. I died for her, Father, and I took her out of this evil age. Will you please look at me? I am not looking at Scripture. I’m glancing just for a second. Now watch me. This is really important.

She’s seen Me, Father. The spirit within her has allowed her to see Me. She stopped trying to impress Me. She has finally discovered that I did it all, and that she’s clothed in Me and I am her righteousness. Got one more column. I’m running out of paper. I don’t know how far you can extend that sheet of paper. My Son, she’s beautiful. She looks beautiful, robed in My grace and the peace that I gave to You that You gave to her. I rejoice to see that she has discovered that You, my Son, are absolutely right and perfect in My eyes without ever having done anything to earn it. I rejoice that she has become as You are. I see that she lives by You, and she has no life apart from You.

This is getting glorious. There’s another column. You can paste it out here. My daughter, you have met My Son, and we have given you our life and our peace, and you can’t impress either one of us, because we’re already overawed with you as you are. There’s nothing more you can do to make me any more pleased with you than I am right now. I thank you that you have…and I rejoice that you have laid down your efforts to impress Me. I cannot be more impressed. You are beautiful, and you are glorious. And Gene Edwards isn’t there praying, Lord, take care of the President. I think a mistake that brothers and sisters make is that they draw these columns, and they write this, “Boy, this is wonderful, and then they read it to God. Don’t do that. Don’t read that to God. Just look at it and let your spirit sail.

My bride, I died for you, and you’re living by My life. I am so filled with peace, and so are you. All grace is Mine, and all grace is yours. My bride, My wife, there’s nothing you can do to make Me love you more than I do right now.  You’re just as complete and perfect as you’re ever going to be. I can never be more pleased with you. Whatever you do or don’t do, in My eyes, you are perfect. Come and be joined with Me and live the life I live, and rise with Me as I rise from the dead and be Mine forever, just as you are. Amen. Listen to Him talk to you. I think you will discover that when He speaks, He never has a condemning word to speak to you ever. He’s got you so boxed in to glory. It’s not there, saints. It’s just not there. I don’t know what else is out here. I have no idea what else is out here, but I would ask you to please learn to glance and then pray. Don’t get your nose stuck in this. Just see what it’s about.

Let your spirit soar, and don’t you ever pray or speak. Let somebody else do the talking, but not you personally. You’ll sit there asking Him all sorts of stuff and telling Him how terrible you are, or asking where the man of sin is right now. I’m teasing on that part. Don’t ever be there, Heidi. Hide, Heidi. Let someone else talk. Let the Father speak to the Son, or the Son speak to the Father. It doesn’t matter, just as long as you’re not involved. But Gene, I’d like to get in there. Well, a couple of years from now, that may be safe, but you’re so full of guilt. You need to hear the Lord reassuring that girl of whom you are a part, that the Father or the Son…you just need to hear those things for quite a long time.

Now, I’m going to say that’s the way I ask the brothers and sisters in the churches to do this, but I can honestly tell you I don’t know whether any of the churches do. One of these days, I’m going to find out. I’m going to come in, and I’m going to say, whether you like it or not, we’re getting up at 5:00, and we’re going to break off in pairs, and you’ve had enough experience with this. One of you will take the name of Christ, the other one will take the bride. You have the right to speak as the bride, and I think you have the right to take on the name of Jesus Christ. And if you don’t, when you stand before Him in judgment, you can say, Lord, I thought that’s what you meant when you said, ‘Pray in My name.’ I can see y’all now…pushing me up to the front. Let him go first. Let’s see what happens. We’re going to leave that scripture alone.

I would tell you to get accustomed to going through these chapters and finding what’s eternal, and perhaps that’s the whole reason for this column two here. Now, that was Galatians. This was actually our first conference. I know you’re not aware of this, but I always go through the epistles in their chronological order. You notice it didn’t start with Romans? It started with Galatians. You notice the second one is not the 1st Corinthians. It was the 1st Thessalonians. If this conference lasted another two or three days, we would plunge deep into 1st Thessalonians, but I want you to do all the practice you wish in Galatians, and then come to 1st Thessalonians with all of this blank and glance at this. Are you following me? If you do fill in these columns, I really wish the sheet were longer and that all these verses were typed out. I would say to you, use only the verses, not this, because I’ve changed this my way. That’s me, Gene Edwards, looking at these things. I would have the verses typed out to the side. If you’d like to become my secretary for no pay whatsoever, we can do that. And you also must obey me completely as my secretary. I had some volunteer help, but they all wanted to tell me how I was supposed to live, walk, breathe, and think.