IV. THE RESULTS OF ABIDING IN THE LORD
A. Understanding God’s Desire
Once man abides in the Lord, spontaneously he touches God’s feeling and understands God’s desire. In the Old Testament, Abraham was an example of this. Because he continually remained before God, God could not refrain from telling Abraham of His intention. Psalm 32:8 says that God guides us with His eyes. This is like the Chinese saying that one acts by the wink or hint given with the eyes. If you live in the fellowship, you will understand what the Bible means when it says God guides us with His eyes. We need not be as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, so that God has to bridle us with headstall, bit, and reins, in order that we may understand His desire. We only need to live in the fellowship, remain in His presence, and draw near to Him. Then spontaneously we will be able to understand His temperament, His disposition, and the principles of His doings. It is as if in our spirit we catch a glimpse of the Lord’s eyes and thus spontaneously touch His feeling and understand His desire.
B. Having God’s Desire
After we have touched God’s feeling and understood His intention, spontaneously we will have His desire in us. At that moment, His desire becomes our desire, and what He wants is exactly what we want.
V. PRAYER THAT RESULTS FROM ABIDING IN THE LORD
After we have touched God’s feeling, understood His intention, and are also able to desire what He desires, then we pray. This is the very thing that is spoken of in John 15:7. “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall come to pass to you.” This wish does not come out of the one who prays. Rather, it comes out from that which God has anointed into him. Since this desire is God’s desire, when he prays, God answers.
Some, shortly after they have been saved, read this verse in John 15 and then they say, “This promise of the Lord is truly wonderful. I can ask whatever I will and He will bring it to pass to me.” So they begin to ask according to whatever they want. Eventually, they find that what they ask for is not granted. This is not because the Lord’s promise fails to materialize. It is because they take the Lord’s promise out of context. They pray without first fulfilling the necessary requirements. They misunderstand the meaning of the verse. John 15:7 covers a total of four points. First, “you abide in Me.” Second, “My words abide in you.” Third, since My words speak forth My intention, it becomes the desire in you so that whatever you desire is what I desire. Fourth, as a result, such prayer will surely be answered by God. Now we understand that the desire in our prayer does not originate from man, but it is what God desires. First, man continuously abides in the Lord. Then God becomes the words in man so that man is able to understand God’s intention. This produces in man a desire which is God’s desire. When man prays according to this desire, God has no choice but to answer it. This then is to “ask and you shall receive.” This prayer is a prayer resulting from abiding in the Lord.
(Lessons on Prayer, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee)
