Now that we have discovered the Holy of Holies in our spirit, we have to learn how to enter into it. We have to learn how to get into the spirit, into the Holy of Holies, into the place of rest. This is why in the preceding chapter I stressed the exercise of the spirit through prayer. My intention was not to speak about prayer. My intention was to help you learn to exercise your spirit. If you are going to contact Christ, you have to exercise your spirit. Every contact with Christ is a real prayer in the spirit. You have to learn all the time, day and night, to exercise your spirit to contact Christ. Real prayer is your talking in your spirit with Christ who is living within you.
I have been asked numerous times by people, "Brother Lee, will you tell me how many times you pray a day?" This is really hard to say. Can you count how many times you breathe a day? If you can count your breathing, I am afraid you are not a healthy person. You cannot count the breathing of a healthy person. He is breathing all the time. When I am ministering to the saints, I am praying within. I cannot minister without contacting Christ. Sometimes some sisters came to me and said, "Brother Lee, it is so easy for me to lose my temper. What is the best way for me to control my temper?" I told them not to try to control their temper. Whenever you are going to lose your temper, you had better contact Christ. Then you will gain Christ more.
We should learn to pray always (1 Thes. 5:17), not by the mind but by the spirit. Always have a living talk with Him, the living One who is in your spirit. He is wonderful, all-inclusive, central, and universal. Yet He is so small to you because He is confined within you and even imprisoned within you. He has been put into jail by you and has become so small within you. We have to learn to experience Christ as the central, universal, all-inclusive, subjective, and wonderful One. His bountifulness is inexhaustible.
Do you need comfort? When you contact Him a little bit, you have the comfort. Do you need encouragement? Just contact Him by your spirit, not by your mind. Sometimes there is no need for you to utter clear words, but you can just say, "O Lord, O Lord." You just groan a little bit in this way, and you will be encouraged. Do you need power? Just contact Him and you will have the power. He is the mighty One as the power. Do you need gifts? Just contact Him. He is the Giver. You should treasure Him, the Giver, more than His gifts. Do you need healing? Take Him as the Healer, and you will have the healing. Do you need wisdom? Do you need guidance? Just contact Him; then you will have the wisdom and receive the guidance. This is easy. Wherever you can breathe, there you can contact Him. He is so close to you, so available to you, and so handy to you. He is even closer to you than the air because the air is outside of you, but He is within you. Learn to contact Him all the time.
Learn to be always present with the Lord. Never be absent from Him. Whenever troubles, trials, difficulties, burdens, and sorrows come, you have to contact Him immediately. Just a little contact, just a little touch, and you will have the power, the energy, and the strength. He is the universality; He is everything. If you need love, He is love. If you need patience, He is patience. If you need humility, He is humility. Just learn to contact Him in your spirit. This is very simple, but you need to keep practicing it.
(The Centrality and Universality of Christ, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)