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[00:00:00] Well, now, this evening we're going to speak about the Holy Spirit and corporate prayer.
[00:00:08] And if you will take your word, we'll look first of all at one or two scriptures. Ephesians, chapter six, verse 17 and 18.
[00:00:22] Ephesians, chapter 617 and 18. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the spirit and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
[00:00:55] Right. I hope you heard that.
[00:00:58] Ephesians, 617 and 18.
[00:01:03] And then in Jude, letter of Jude, verse 20 and 21. Jude verse 20 and 21.
[00:01:21] Notice this is in the plural, but ye in the plural.
[00:01:27] Beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
[00:01:49] And then Romans chapter eight, verse 26 and 27.
[00:02:02] Romans, chapter eight, verses 26 and 27.
[00:02:09] And in like manner, the spirit also helpeth our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
[00:02:45] And then in the Old Testament, the 133rd psalm, psalm 133.
[00:03:04] Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that came down upon the skirt or hem of his garments, like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life, forevermore.
[00:03:40] Well, now, this evening, the Holy Spirit and prayer, we shall of course, be having another evening also upon the Holy Spirit and prayer. But tonight I want to speak perhaps about one aspect of the person, of the Holy Spirit and prayer.
[00:04:02] Without the Holy Spirit. We must make this quite clear. There can be no real prayer without the Holy Spirit. A prayer meeting is a lot of human beings just simply giving voice to so many petitions.
[00:04:24] But real prayer is something which the Holy Spirit begets, leads, directs, empowers, and in a very wonderful way brings us to the place where we execute the will of God. His leadership, his direction, his empowering, his ministry are essential to corporate prayer.
[00:04:57] And without them there can be no togetherness, no harmony, no anointing, and no weapons that are effectual.
[00:05:11] There can be no executive action when the Holy Spirit is quenched or grieved in a time of prayer, we simply become a congregation of units, quite unrelated, all doing our own biblical thing.
[00:05:30] We may be quite biblical, quite scriptural, quite correct, but we are simply a congregation of saved individuals that are quite unrelated. There is no togetherness, there is no mutuality in expression. The position may be there, but there is nothing in practicality expression. There's no cohesion, there's no harmony, there is no anointing. It's not that the anointing is not there for us, but the anointing has not been recognized and is not being obeyed. In that sense, there is no anointing upon that time. And if the Holy Spirit is not present, who can use the sword of the spirit?
[00:06:20] It is quite impossible for the weapons of our warfare, which are not of the flesh. They don't belong to the realm of human genius, or human resource or human energy, but they are mighty through God, to the pulling down or casting down of strongholds.
[00:06:41] If the Holy Spirit is not present in his position as conductor and leader and director of the whole time of prayer, then there are no weapons. What you find is this. The whole time is taken up with mentioning matters.
[00:07:02] Maybe we may even be correct insofar as we may try to keep to us as to a certain extent on certain points. But never is there a weapon that comes in where you all feel that thing has been dealt with. The thing's been cast down through God.
[00:07:27] Or again you may say, executive action. You find, you pray and pray and pray and pray, and never does a thing come to a conclusion, because it really still is in the realm of our own endeavor. Who else but the Holy Spirit can make known to the members of Christ's body what is the will and the mind and the burden of the head?
[00:07:54] How does the risen Christ in the midst of us make his mind known apart from the spirit?
[00:08:06] You remember yesterday evening we spoke at some length on those verses in Matthew 18. Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together into my name, there am I in the midst. How, may I ask, does the risen Christ in the midst of his own people, make known his mind in such a way that there is an inner agreement? There is a spontaneous, organic oneness apparent in the members of the body only by the Holy Spirit. There is no other way.
[00:08:59] That is why we are told in Ephesians 618 that we are with all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the spirit.
[00:09:15] Now note very carefully this phrase, praying in the spirit at all seasons in the spirit. There is common an idea that to pray in the spirit means that you are praying in a tongue.
[00:09:35] You hear that quite often that to pray in the spirit is to pray in a tongue. Now let us get quite clear on this matter. Praying in the spirit most definitely includes praying in a tongue.
[00:09:52] There is no shadow of doubt at all for that gift of tongues, especially in devotion and in intercession, is a manifestation of the spirit.
[00:10:07] So it is obviously praying in the spirit. But to equate praying in the spirit with praying in a tongue is quite wrong and devalues the whole meaning of praying in the spirit. It is a far, far greater thing than only praying in a tongue.
[00:10:29] One Corinthians, chapter 14 and verse 14 and 15, I think, make this quite clear. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit. And I will pray with the understanding also.
[00:10:58] I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
[00:11:05] In other words, if we want to be strictly correct, the phrase praying with the spirit is praying in a tongue.
[00:11:16] To pray in the spirit may include that, but it goes far, far beyond it. We are now speaking of a dimension of prayer. You see, it says, praying at all seasons in the spirit.
[00:11:34] In other words, all real prayer is in the spirit. It is under the leadership of the spirit, under the direction of the spirit, by the empowering of the spirit.
[00:11:49] It is all in the realm of the spirit. And if we can get that clear, itll help us very much.
[00:11:59] The realm, the sphere, the dimension of all true corporate prayer is in the spirit.
[00:12:08] Now, when we see this one single point, we begin to recognize that corporate prayer is in an altogether different realm than anything in this world.
[00:12:23] It is not just a get together of human beings sort of giving voice to their own burdens and petitions and feelings. The whole thing's in a different, it's on a different level, it's in another dimension. It is in the spirit.
[00:12:41] We can equate that again with this verse in Matthew 18. Again I say unto you, if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them. And my Father, who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together into my name, there am I in the midst of them, praying at all seasons in the spirit. So now that leads me to say one or two things this evening of a kind of fundamental nature about the Holy Spirit and prayer. And the first thing is this. I want to stress the absolute sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in the prayer time.
[00:13:28] Now, we must make no mistake about this matter. It's not only just any Tom, Dick and Harry that can quench the Holy Spirit, but sometimes, us leaders, we can quench the Holy Spirit.
[00:13:45] The Holy Spirit is absolutely sovereign, and until his sovereignty is recognized by everyone at the very commencement of such a time of prayer, there is a blockage to start with.
[00:14:05] A shadow comes into our times of prayer at the very beginning. So it is essential that we should see this and see it once for all. The prayer time is not just a free for all. There is a kind of idea that the prayer meeting is where we all. It's a free for all, you know. Now we can all sort of have our little go. We can all say our little bit, and quite honestly, everyone should say their little bit. That's the idea. Free for all. Sometimes the idea of the prayer time is that it's a time for sort of spiritual self expression. You know, you say your little piece and I say my little piece, and we all express our spiritual character and stature and standing together. And this helps us all, you know, see, there seems to be no question of getting anything done, no question of things in the heavenlies being touched, no question of principalities and powers being set back. The whole idea is that the prayer time is a kind of place where we can flex our spiritual muscles and sort of be admired, more or less. You know, it's a time where we sort of is a free for all.
[00:15:20] The prayer time is not even just a time for the expression of petitions, as we see the need.
[00:15:29] Some people have got the idea that if they've got a particular need, and they see a particular need, well, now it's my duty to sort of bring that particular need into the time.
[00:15:42] It may be if the Holy Spirit directs you.
[00:15:47] But just because you see a need or feel a need does not necessarily mean that the Lord himself wants that particular need brought right in to the time of prayer.
[00:16:00] Christ is the head of the body.
[00:16:06] Indeed, it says in Ephesians one and verse 22 that he has been made head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him that filleth all in all. Head over all things to the church, which is his body.
[00:16:32] Now, what does that mean?
[00:16:34] Why do we have again and again this term head? Head?
[00:16:39] He is head of the body. He is the head of the church. He is head over all things to the church. What does a head mean if it does not represent the mind and the will?
[00:16:55] Surely it must speak of the mind of Christ and the will of Christ.
[00:17:02] And if you like the design in one sense that is in the mind, there is a purpose, there is an aim. Do you understand? It represents something. A head is not just empty or it's not meant to be. There should be some intelligence in the head.
[00:17:18] There should be some sort of thinking box in the head.
[00:17:23] We always think of a person's head as where we don't think of the stomach as the place where you think and where you will. Maybe some do, but generally speaking, we don't think of the stomach as the seat of our will and the seat of our rationalization powers.
[00:17:42] We think of the head as the place of the intelligence, the place of willing, the place of purpose and so on of our mind. We speak of our mind.
[00:17:53] Now you see, we cannot know the will of the head except by the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:04] We cannot know the design that the head has except by the Holy Spirit.
[00:18:12] We cannot know the aim that the head has except by the Holy Spirit. We cannot know the burden that he has except by the Holy Spirit. You begin to get it now. And when we speak of a term such as head over all things to the church, it speaks of his ascendancy.
[00:18:29] The fact of the matter is, why are we told that he is head over all things to the church? Is it just a nice little phrase? Is it just an exaggeration of the apostle Paul? Or does it mean that the Lord Jesus has been made head over everything to the church, to no other body in the world? Is the Lord Jesus made head over everything to except to the church? And therefore we as the body have got to explore that lordship and that kingship, that ascendancy of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't do it except by the Holy Spirit. You know as well as I do that a prayer time can be as hard going, as heavy as under the weather, as just at the mercy of circumstances, until and unless the Holy Spirit comes right into that time. Have you ever known a prayer time where we've started off and it's been really difficult and suddenly someone has put under the anointing and in that moment it's like a spiritual sound barrier has been broken and we're through into a new level and the whole time lifts because the Holy Spirit has got his place and his sovereignty has been recognized and the anointing is being obeyed and in that moment, something happens. Now, all this is so important, but we've got to watch time because there's even one to get down to prayer. But you begin to understand this, that unless the head can express his mind and his burden and his ascendancy and victory, we can get nowhere.
[00:20:18] And that simply means that the Holy Spirit is not only sovereign, but must be obeyed by every member.
[00:20:29] There is not a single one of us that is an exception to this rule. None of us is so old in the Lord that we can be excluded from this category of obedience to the Holy Spirit.
[00:20:49] That is why it is such a serious thing and why I want to speak so solemnly about the matter of grieving the Holy Spirit.
[00:21:01] Sometimes we can grieve the Holy Spirit. At least that's not as bad as quenching the Holy Spirit.
[00:21:08] But sometimes in a time of prayer, you must have noticed it, everything is alive, and suddenly someone comes in and the whole thing dives into death.
[00:21:20] Now, why people say, ah, well, they're all against poor old so and so. There's nothing of the kind.
[00:21:27] Most people feel so, so embarrassed. They don't want to be against so and so. They want to really say amen. But if they're faithful to the Lord, something says, no amen. Now, dont you be partaker of that. Nothing to do with me.
[00:21:43] Never say amen.
[00:21:45] Just because you think that in some sentimental way youre helping someone, you become a partaker of something thats not of God. And as the Bible says, you touch death. And, you know, one of the things a priest or a Levite must never do is to touch death.
[00:22:00] Because when you touch death, you become involved in death.
[00:22:05] You become compromised.
[00:22:08] So we can't be sentimental. The church must never be sentimental about this. Of course we want to help one, and most of us want to help. But you see, when it takes the prayer time takes a dive down into death, what are we to do? What has happened is this. The Holy Spirit's been grieved. Now, that's not the end of the whole time, because if there are those who are alive and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, then we can almost immediately come back onto the track and, and life comes straight in again. And you've noticed that sometimes why someone else comes in under the anointing and the whole place is full of almonds.
[00:22:40] You can't help it because it's back under the anointing, and the spirit in you witnesses with your spirit. We're back on track.
[00:22:55] But it's a sad thing when we take a dive into death, and then someone else follows in death, and someone else follows in death, and the Holy Spirit is quenched and the time dies.
[00:23:05] Then we go out more exhausted than we came in, you know, the kind of time.
[00:23:13] Well, now, all this is quite important, really, because it is the Holy Spirit who makes known the mind of Christ and gives expression to his burden, directs us into the doing of his will, and establishes his victory.
[00:23:27] So it is vitally and strategically important that all of us recognize, obey and begin to experience the headship of Christ by the Spirit. Now, why do I believe that this whole matter of corporate prayer is so important? It's not only that things get done in the place of prayer, but the youngest believer learns lessons that will stand them in good stead for the whole of their life down here and for their service in eternity.
[00:23:59] You learn to distinguish between your soul and spirit. You learn to distinguish the government of God.
[00:24:08] You learn, sometimes negatively, by what is not of God in a time as much as you learn from God positively by what is right.
[00:24:24] The Holy Spirit in a time of prayer is like the conductor of an orchestra.
[00:24:31] Every single member of the orchestra must keep their eye on the conductor. It's no good just having the music in front of you. You've got to have not only your instrument and not only the music, but you've got to have an eye for the conductor. Now, what so often happens in a time of prayer is that people have got an instrument and people have got their eye, all two of them, firmly, sometimes on music.
[00:24:57] But then there comes a disharmony.
[00:25:03] Maybe the Lord wants you to come in five times in one time of prayer. Thats his business.
[00:25:10] If the baton points in your direction, in you come.
[00:25:14] No good. You saying amongst the violins. Weve had our lot at the beginning, no more for us, however much he points at us or coming in any more.
[00:25:25] Nor if you've got your triangle, is it any good you banging it furiously all the way through.
[00:25:33] The fact of the matter is, somehow or other, you've got to be under the direction of the conductor. And really, this is the most, the best way to see this word, because as I said last night, this greek word that we have in Matthew 18 and verse 19 is the word from which we get our english word symphony.
[00:25:54] And the Holy Spirit is really symphonizing us. He's harmonizing us, he's blending us together.
[00:26:01] If we will only keep our eye on him, then every one of us has a part to play in that time, and we shall be, as it were, holy with him and contributing what we have of the law. Now, this can be even when we don't actually take part. I know some people will hide behind that and say, well, I'm so glad he said that, because that means, you know, that I never take part, or very rarely. And I'm so glad because I don't think the conductor ever really points in my direction too much. Maybe you don't. Look, you know, the Lord is a perfect gentleman. If you say im not in on this time, Lord, he will ignore you.
[00:26:45] He will never draw you into a time that you say, im not in on this time, Lord.
[00:26:51] But there will come a day when you will lose everything when you stand before God, because unless you learn to overcome and contribute what you have of the Lord under the direction of the spirit of God, and that can be very hard sometimes for our flesh, then it seems to me that we shall not really be qualified for the eternal service that God is wanting to train us for.
[00:27:26] I say it's all part of this matter of prayer.
[00:27:32] Obviously, when we all obey the Holy Spirit, there will be a design and a time. There will be harmony in a time, there will be cohesion in the time, and there will be fulfillment in the time. Now, thats surely what it means to pray in the spirit.
[00:27:48] It just simply means that we are under his direction and because were under his direction and leadership, and it is by his prompting and enabling power, then there will be in that whole evening, harmony and cohesion and fulfilment.
[00:28:11] It's not always that every time a prayer we go into, every single thing we pray for is touched there. And then on that night, sometimes it may be that we will have to leave it and come back to it. Now, there's just a few words I'd like to say about the purpose of the prayer time.
[00:28:27] What really is the purpose of the prayer time? If you turn to Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter six and verse ten, thy kingdom come, thy will be done as it is in heaven, so on earth. What is the purpose of corporate?
[00:28:58] It is that together, as the people of God, we see that the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, now, martinis, first we have to find out what the will of God is in heaven, and then we bring that will as it is done in heaven. On earth.
[00:29:25] We cannot use the keys of the kingdom unless first we know that heaven has said yes, then we can use them. Do you understand?
[00:29:38] And I think again, this is very, very important.
[00:29:42] We are to see that the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. We are to see that the kingdom of God comes in the various situations we face now, there may be all kinds of situations. How can it be that a company of people who are involved in outreach and winning others to cries should suddenly find that they're blockaded?
[00:30:05] What do they do? Right? So they preach more and they find they're just as blockaded. So then they decide to change the whole time they have, and have something altogether different, which may at least give everyone a jolt and change everything and shake everyone out of a rut.
[00:30:22] But you can lose very, very precious things that way, because that is not the root of the problem. The root of the problem is that somehow or other, we've got to get behind the scenes and see that the kingdom of God comes into this blockade.
[00:30:39] Do you believe that Satan can blockade Christ?
[00:30:44] Do you really believe that the gates of hell can prevail against the church in flat contradiction to the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 1618?
[00:30:55] The fact of the matter is that only in prayer can we see that we have to get before the Lord. Now, we found that again and again here I've seen, you know, the blockade building up and was all sort of accepting it and finding things hard. Oh, we say, well, and then suddenly it comes up in prayer and we go at it. And if you just try and pray and say, oh, Lord, please, please, please, it just gets harder and harder and harder and somehow becomes heavier and heavier and heavier. But the moment we declare that Jesus Christ is Lord and assert that the kingdom of God has the final say in this situation, you will see straight away that the grip of Satan has to loose on that whole matter.
[00:31:39] The kingdom of God comes. It can be in all kinds of things. Sometimes there are complex situations in a family, sometimes there are complex situations in an office, sometimes there are complex situations locally in our life together as the people of God. Unless we know how to bring the kingdom of God in on the situation. What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is the throne of God.
[00:32:05] It is the kingship of the Lord Jesus. It is the rule of the Lord Jesus.
[00:32:11] Until we learn how to bring the kingdom of God into situations, God will not bring the kingdom in. Now, you see, this is where we often. We get a wrong kind of Calvinism.
[00:32:27] Our idea is that God will bring it in anyway. He doesn't.
[00:32:31] If you want the gates of hell to prevail against Christ's building of the church, don't use the keys if you don't want to see precious lives made living stones for that building work of the church. Don't use the keys.
[00:32:50] There are two ways. We'll look at that another evening if you want. Don't want the. The power of death, the power of darkness and death to prevail against the church.
[00:33:06] You must use the keys.
[00:33:09] Otherwise God allows it. You see, God is intent on teaching us lessons, and his attitude is like a little child. If you do not learn to use that now you're growing up, you never will learn. It's no good me doing it for you all the time. You've got to learn to do it.
[00:33:27] And that's why God will often allow situations to develop which are terrible because we have failed early enough to see the situation coming.
[00:33:38] And that would introduce me into a whole new subject which I don't want to talk about tonight. Watching and praying. You see, people sometimes learn to pray, but they don't watch. So all the time, every single thing that happens, politically, economically, military, spiritually, on any level, international, national, local, we are all the time following it, following it, following it, going behind it. We have no understanding of the times in which we live because we're not watching and praying. We're only praying when it happened. We say, oh, oh, it's happened, now we must pray.
[00:34:13] Whereas if we had been awake, and that is the word, keep awake and pray. Keep alert and pray, we would have spotted something happening long before. And don't say that you can't, because every single believer can be taught by the spirit of God to spot things beforehand.
[00:34:35] You must be the biggest dimwit in the world spiritually. If the spirit of God can't teach you to spot before they happen, what good are you going to be in the government and administration of God in eternity? If you can't spot things and discern things that may give you a problem or two, because you'll say straight away, ah, but there's no darkness. There's no problem.
[00:34:58] I know there's no darkness. There's a thing called outer darkness, of course, speaks of and a few other things. But I mean, the fact of the matter is, I'm quite sure there will be some kind of problem.
[00:35:11] I won't go into that.
[00:35:13] I think you'll find that eternity, life being life, there will be things without sin where we will have to untie things.
[00:35:23] And we are being trained for situation.
[00:35:27] Only God can show us and teach us has to do it now.
[00:35:33] So what is the aim and purpose of the prayer time?
[00:35:38] It is that we should see the mind and will of our risen head fulfilled and realized.
[00:35:48] We are in that time of prayer first to discover the mind and of the head, and then to pour out our hearts in prayer and intercession and see that that mind of our Lord is realized in the situations that we are bringing to him.
[00:36:18] The aim of the time of prayer governs then its scope so simple that is the aim of the time, of where its clear that its not just for self expression, its not just for free for all, but its a time when really we have got to, as it were, be, keep alive and alert and obey the Lord. Now may I say something about the anointing in a prayer time, everyone is clear as to the need for an anointing when it comes to a preacher or a leader. People will go miles and miles to hear them preacher, and they will say, you know so and so well, he says the right things, but there's no anointing.
[00:37:03] But when there's an anointing, people say, the man's got an anointing, and they will go miles to hear an anointing, an anointed preacher. Because every believer, deep down in their heart, because of this one man ministry complex we've all got, knows very well that the preacher or the pastor or the evangelist or the teacher ought to have an anointing. And if he hasn't, we think something wrong with it.
[00:37:26] Every servant of the Lord should have an anointing.
[00:37:31] We feel the same about leaders. I think most of us would feel probably about elders. They ought to have an anointing.
[00:37:44] But very few people ever see the need of an anointing for a meeting.
[00:37:52] It's an interesting thing that when we come into the old covenant, we find that not only was the king anointed, and not only was the priest anointed, and not only was the prophet anointed, but we find that all the furniture of the tabernacle was anointed, and we find the tent of meeting was anointed. If you want that, that's Exodus 30 26. They anointed the tent of meeting where God met with the people, and the people met with God. He was anointed. In other words, theres an anointing for our meetings with God and gods meetings with us.
[00:38:30] Thats why I read that. Psalm 133, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Not just sort of have a holiday together in unity, or a few days or a few moments in unity or a meeting, but dwell together in unity.
[00:38:51] It is like the precious oil that ran down upon the head that ran down upon the beard. Even Aaron's beard that came down to the hem of his garment. Whatever is it all talking about? I remember when I first used to read that, I said, what an odd sound. Beards and heads and hems of garments and oil being poured. And then the next minute's talking about the jew of hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion. It's the weirdest little psalm I used to think I've ever read.
[00:39:21] What's they got to do with people being one oil on Aeron's head. And this old fashioned idea of it coming down on his beard and then onto his garment. But the thought is that Aaron was the high priest, and the oil is the spirit of God. And the only way our oneness can function in practical. In practical ways is by the anointing.
[00:39:49] Just like the oil upon the head running down upon the beard, right down to the hem of the garment. Every single member of the body is included in the anointing.
[00:40:00] That alone, for me, is sufficient to believe that there is an experience of the Holy Spirit that every one of us must enter into. If we enter into it at our new birth. Thank God, I find very few who do.
[00:40:18] We need to enter into an experience of the anointing. Of course, the Holy Spirit is in us.
[00:40:23] Can't be born of God unless he sins. But we need to know. An anointing. What does it mean? Here, listen again to me on this matter. You see, the Lord Jesus. One of his titles is Christ.
[00:40:36] And Christ. Christ is the greek form of the hebrew meshiach. And all that means is the anointed one. Both in Greek and in Hebrew, it means the anointed one.
[00:40:47] Then what does it mean to be in Christ? It means that you're in the anointed one.
[00:40:52] There's an anointing for you in Christ. There's an anointing for you in the anointing. Now you begin to understand the meaning of Pentecost. The head received the promise of the Father and poured forth this which he seen here on the body.
[00:41:07] And the anointing came down upon 120 members.
[00:41:11] And every one of them entered into their union with Christ and into the anointing that was there. Two things happened at once. The Holy Spirit came into them and upon them.
[00:41:22] And from that moment, they knew an anointing.
[00:41:26] Every one of you has got an anointing. We could spend a long time on this matter of anointing. What does an anointing mean? Well, very simply, we all know it speaks of power being made available. But that's not the first thing about anointing. Why were things always anointed in the Old Testament? Because it was God's sign. That thing is set aside for my use.
[00:41:46] My use.
[00:41:48] That thing is set aside for no flesh. No flesh. That's why it says in Exodus 30. And I think it's verse 30. I'll find it for you in a moment. I've got it somewhere here. Verse 32. Verse 32 it says, and the holy anointing oil shall not touch the flesh. And if the flesh touches that, man shall be stoned for death.
[00:42:09] Never shall it touch the flesh. No one shall make anything like it.
[00:42:13] It is holy. Why? Because the holy anointing oil sets a person apart. Apart.
[00:42:20] Now you begin to understand why there is an anointing for our meetings. The flesh ought not to come into our meetings. It's not man's ingenuity, man's creativeness, man's ability, man's resources, man's ideas, man's opinions, even if they're spiritual opinions. That whole time is set aside for man's opinions and man's ideas and man's resources. It's set aside for the Lord. That's why the king was anointed. That's why the prophet was anointed. That's why the priest was anointed. God was saying that one set aside from all that he is naturally for me, I will rule through him. I will pray through him.
[00:43:03] I will speak through him.
[00:43:07] Now you begin to understand when we see this, the importance of this word anointing.
[00:43:13] I'm always praying about anointing. I know that, but I don't suppose too many really understand why one's always talking about anointing. There's an anointing, I often say, here we stand into it, the speaker and hearer alike. Before ever we come to a time prayer, I often say, Lord, we stand into that anointing which is ours. We gather everybody into it. Why? Why? Because I want to make sure that Satan knows very well, as far as I'm concerned, that that time is not anything for my opinions or anyone else's opinions. It is for the Lord.
[00:43:46] Now you begin to understand how important this is for the prayer time. No place suffers more from our opinions than the prayer time.
[00:43:54] No place is more at the mercy of our sentiment or our feelings than the prayer time. But we have to recognize there is an anointing for every single time of prayer. If we were to meet seven times a week for prayer, there would be an anointing for all seven times. Every time it's a fresh anointing.
[00:44:15] And the whole value of that time depends upon whether we all leader and folks are like, stand into the anointing from the beginning and right the way through. If we do, the time is light. Why? Because the psalm, listen to it, Old Testament, the psalm says this, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life, forevermore. And you've known that when there's a time of prayer that abides under the anointing, it's life. Life. It floods through the whole time. It's just like the dew coming down from Hermon, the counteraction of the cold air of the north and the warm air of the south meeting over the mountains of Zion. And down it comes in dew. Jerusalem doesn't have rain, not a spot of rain normally for eight to nine months of the year. And it lives on a heavy dew that comes every single night in the hottest part of the summer because of the counteraction of the colder north air of Hermon with the warm air of the south. It comes down into you.
[00:45:17] When we are under the anointing, and we all stand into the anointing, we recognize the anointing in a time of prayer or in any other time, and follow it. You know what happens? You can come in whacked and go out revived.
[00:45:30] The time can be a battle, but you go out with a spring in your step. You don't go out like this.
[00:45:36] But sometimes in our times of prayer, you feel you want to go out on crutches, out in a wheelchair.
[00:45:45] You came in worn out. You go out nearly dead.
[00:45:50] Senility is almost overtaken one during the time, because there has not been an anointing obeyed by us all, and therefore there's no dew and there is no life.
[00:46:07] Few believers can recognize when that blessing which God has commanded of eternal life has been quenched.
[00:46:18] Many of us, we will just go on with the routine. We will just go on and on and on, just like Neodesia when the whole thing, they thought they had everything. They humbled on with all their meetings and their prayer meetings and their bible studies and their evangelists outrage. And they didn't even know that the Lord was outside saying, behold, I stand at the door and knock.
[00:46:40] Scandalous. They thought, what kind of man is John that he could see such a stupid vision? Our Lord, outside of our company, knocking on the door and saying, if any man hear my voice, I will come in and will sup with him. We're always singing hymns to our Lord. We're always reading his word. We're always doing what we were taught to do 20 years ago and sometimes hundreds of years ago.
[00:47:19] The fact of the matter is that there is an anointing and you see, there is a necessity to really abide under the anointing in a prayer time.
[00:47:33] That's how we know when the prayer is alive and the prayer is dead. You've all known it. In a time of prayer, a person's prayer is full of life and then someone comes in with a dead prayer.
[00:47:43] It's not that there's anything wrong with that person sometimes. It's just there's no anointing. Theyre not under the anointing. Theyre doing their own little thing.
[00:47:55] So this is part of our education, spiritual education, to learn, to discern and to abide under the anointing. If the burden of the spirit, the mind of Christ for tonight is Nepal, its no good praying for Laos. You may have had a letter hot from Laos, full of urgent need and you think, oh, ive had this letter from.
[00:48:18] But the mind of the law maybe. No, no, no. You pray for the poor. Now, what I found is this, that when we obey the mind of the law. Now I'm talking about the mind of the Lord. Not a preconceived booty, but the mind of the Lord.
[00:48:32] If the Lord's mind really is Nepal, he answers Laos because we obey him in praying for Nepal. Now that's an extraordinary thing. Oh, I could tell you some stories. I remember in one of these schools of prayer someone brought up some dear sister who was very, very ill.
[00:48:49] I will not mention her name, but this dear sister, I nearly died. We had her name bandied about for 20 minutes at the beginning of a prayer. Time was one of the worst times of prayer I've ever been in.
[00:49:04] And the funny thing was this school, they'd had the most marvellous time in the former session. This time they took a dive and there they were, all sort of round as a. On the ground, fumbling around. Information was given. Sermonettes were go. There were sermonettes galore, horizontal prayers, you know, kind of stresses and strains coming out everywhere. And dear old miss so and so's name was going across, back across over here, back here. Then someone came in with something and back we came to miss so and so. Of course, she was dead.
[00:49:39] The brother who started the prayer was an old missionary and there wasn't a. I know it sounds very unkind. There wasn't a digit of life in the poor man, but he had got this burden about miss so and so, because he'd heard that she was very unwell. In actual fact, she'd gone a day or two before.
[00:50:03] And so he started off. And one or two others who had kinks about healing, they were absolutely every believer ought to be healed. And they said, so. That's where we got the sermon next. You see, we know, lord, it says, so and so and so and so and so and so and so so. And they gave us all the scriptures. So and so. This person's got to be healed. In actual fact, she'd been healed, of course. I mean, she'd been taken home.
[00:50:26] We rumbled around in a mess and a conformity confusion that was terribly hard to bear. I remember at the end of it, one brother said, oh, Lord, we've fallen flat on our faces. Help us.
[00:50:44] In actual fact, the Lord turned that particular time of prayer into the most marvelous means of instruction for everybody. But do you see what I'm trying to get at? The real thing was, at that particular time, the Lord really wanted that company to pray for President Ford. I can't remember what it was, but there was some particular need that had just come up. And the need was really, the Lord's mind was pray for him.
[00:51:08] When we got onto the track in the next time, it was tremendous. It went like a bum.
[00:51:19] But now, you see what I mean.
[00:51:25] There was no anointing. If God says, pray for this, it's no good praying for that. But we say, oh, but if we don't pray for sons, they'll die.
[00:51:34] But the Lord says, no, you read that to me. It's a matter of faith. You do what I'm telling you to do, not what you think is right to do. If I tell you to pray for Japan, brother so and so is going to get healed along the way. Because you are obeying me in faith. And you say, well, Lord, I really feel I ought to be praying for so and so, but I'll pray for this because this is your direction. I pray for that. And the Lord says, I've done the other.
[00:52:01] You see, it is our unbelief. So often it's the problem, because we feel that unless we open our big mouth and say something, you know, of course it'll not get done. So what we do is we pray for what God has not directed us to pray for.
[00:52:16] Not under the anointing. We get into death, and then we neither pray for the thing God wants. And the thing that we want to see happen can't happen anyway, because we've been not under the anointing. So we're in a complete mess.
[00:52:31] Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
[00:52:41] So you begin to see that this whole matter of the anointing is not only a matter of divine government, it's a matter of divine discipline. We have to be disciplined by one another. We have to be disciplined by the spirit of God. And we can only learn as we're prepared to make our mistakes. No one's going to go for anybody I trust because we make mistakes. Every one of us has made mistakes in the place of prayer. Every single one of us, myself one, all of us, we've all made mistakes in the place of prayer.
[00:53:10] But as long as we learn from our mistakes, all's well.
[00:53:16] That's part of our discipline. But it's when we make the same mistake again and again and again and again that there's something terribly and radically wrong. Well, now, what's just some practical points?
[00:53:29] We must not only look to the spirit to lead us at the beginning of the prayer time, but right through, through the whole time. Secondly, brothers with responsibility for leadership, always assert the headship of Christ over the time before you begin.
[00:53:45] Never go into a time of prayer without thirst. Two or three of you getting before the Lord and declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord of this time, his head over all things to us in this time.
[00:53:59] Thirdly, we must learn to know when to and when to stop praying.
[00:54:06] It may not always be easy when finally, after a great battle, you've opened your mouth and you're in full flood.
[00:54:14] It's a sad thing when people cannot stop and are unable to distinguish that the anointing's gone from them.
[00:54:23] But we must learn when to pray and when to stop praying. We must also learn to when a matter is settled or when the Lord has moved on from a matter. Now, don't get the idea that every single matter raised in the prayer time has got to be settled in that time. That can be a legalistic idea. It's much easier to go by a regulation or by a book than by the spirit to be led by the spirit. It's always difficult to be led by the spirit. But you see, there are times when the law brings up a matter and 710, twelve people may pray for that matter from different angles.
[00:55:01] And then the Lord says, drop it, drop it. That's enough for this evening.
[00:55:06] We shall take this matter up again.
[00:55:08] Now, I could give you many examples of that where a matter's been dropped. And the Lord said, you see, some people's idea is, if it's the soles of our feet, let's walk round Jericho to the walls drop. My dear friend, it won't be the walls that will drop.
[00:55:26] You will wear yourself out in that matter of prayer because you're not under divine direction. It's all very well to say yes, but when we put the soles of our feet on the riverbed of Jordan, it happened. Yes, but this time the Lord said, once a day round for six days, and on the 7th day, seven times round, remember? You see, it's so much easier to. Ah, we've got it. We've got the pattern now. We've got the pattern. Feet in, feet in on, get wet, get your feet right in and it'll happen.
[00:55:58] On that first day. You might have walked around for 24 hours and you would have been finished. You've never seen the walls come down because you would have all had blisters and terrible foot soreness that had put you out for one or two weeks, probably in the heat.
[00:56:14] Well, just learn to assess when a matter's settled and be ready to introduce a new matter under the government of the spirit. Be careful of just the slavish mechanical following of items for prayer. Really be alive and sensitive to the spirit. Thirdly, we must learn what to do when something not under the anointing is introduced.
[00:56:36] They don't all feel that as soon as someone comes in and the prayer is not really right or it's missing placed, or it's a sermonette, or it's a horizontal prayer or information giving, and that that's the end. And you just say, oh, it's not the end at all. Maybe the Lord will teach you through such people. And you know, sometimes a prayer, they're like this. If we had a chart, you sort of go this way and then out there and then back and then on and out there and then back and then out and back and then out and back. But you see that the Lord says, that's a good time of prayer because basically you kept on track.
[00:57:12] So at the end of it you go out under the anointing. But where is wrong is when you go out, you've gone the tangent, then the whole thing's finished. The Lord's left the prayer time and says, carry on.
[00:57:27] You appear to feel that you can do it better without my help or direction. Carry on.
[00:57:33] Be careful of sentiments governing our sense of priorities or apparent emergencies that appear obviously to require immediate.
[00:57:46] If the law directs that we should take it up, we must do so, and often that is the way. But there are times when the law does not. And we must always just remember that those with responsibility for leadership we must see carefully the place for suggested matters. When matters are suggested, it doesnt mean that those are the only matters we can pray for.
[00:58:09] They are only suggested matters. And its up to us then to look to the Lord out of that to see what he would take up and we should pray for, or if theres something else that ought to come in. And I do think that those with a responsibility for leadership should be a lie to the need sometimes to correct when there are folks who really are failing and failing again and again, then I think there is a need of a word of correction by those who are responsible.
[00:58:41] Or again, let us put it this way. I believe that when someone really is a means of bringing in life into a time of prayer, that one should be encouraged, because so often the person who is alive and under the anointing is the one who gets discouraged, and the person who's making the mistake goes on like a tank.
[00:59:02] Lastly, remember that all of us are disciples. We are all learning in the school of prayer.
