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PRAYER

J. A. Petersen

I was thinking of prayer, particularly related to the meeting for prayer last night—the Lord Jesus taking up the feelings of the brethren, and the Spirit too, before the Father. We may soon forget our petitions, but the Spirit of God would take on the feelings of the brethren, and we look for the answers to come in. This subject is very wide in its bearing. The gospels give us the prayers of the Lord Jesus Himself. His prayer in John 17 is well known, and the prayer He taught in Luke 11: 1–4, “Father, thy name be hallowed” is also well known in Christendom in a general sense. Thank God that men have knowledge of this prayer. Then the saints have been helped much as to the Lord’s lifting up His eyes to heaven and saying

“Father” (John 17: 1), leading us to be sustained in the affections and knowledge of the Father, to the end that was in the Lord’s mind there, “but also for those who believe on me through their word” (John 17: 20), and “that they may be perfected into one”. John 17: 23.

It is in mind now to dwell on the prayer of the Lord in Luke 22 for one brother. We need therefore to pray for one another, the Lord giving a lead in that. The Lord prayed for Peter before he got into trouble, which would always mark the Lord Jesus as foreseeing what we may fall into. Yet in all this He holds to the greatness of what it is to be in His kingdom. “But I am in the midst of you as the one that serves. But ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”. The Lord is giving credit to the apostles here as to how they stood and suffered with Him, implying what great dignity they would come into in the kingdom. We could well study in Luke’s gospel, specially chapters 12 and 13 which lead up to the house of God, and the father’s house in chapter 15, to see how the Lord will serve His own—“he will gird himself and make them recline at table, and coming up will serve them”, Luke 12: 37.

We all like to be served, but the Lord Jesus will serve His own. Here in chapter 22 He says,

“that ye may eat and drink at my table”, but in chapter 12 we are told that He it is who will serve at the table. This would show lowliness, and we also can serve the brethren. It would encourage us in serving the brethren, not how we are served so much, but how we can serve.

The next great service of the Lord Jesus here is as Priest. He is interceding with the Father about the leading man Simon; for in a way he represents all of us. The Lord knows more than we do; all would agree with that. So He says, “Satan has demanded to have you, to sift you as wheat”. Maybe we are not always aware of what Satan is doing. People followed Absalom

“in their simplicity” (2 Samuel 15: 11), they did not know he was leading them away from David. The Lord knew that Simon was soon to be in difficulty because Satan was active. The book of Job teaches that Satan appeared before God, but is active also on the earth, and he is very active at present in certain matters. The Lord in Luke 22 is teaching us so that we may see the difficulties before they arise, as well as after they take place. The

apostles, in their epistles, particularly Paul and John, foresaw the difficulties that were about to come on the saints. They foresaw what would come on the testimony, preparing the saints ahead. In that connection I was reading today in the good teaching, a reading in Cranford, N.J. with Mr Taylor in 1937 (see N.S. Vol. 84), where he was ministering as to the difference between the congregation and the assembly. Exodus 12: 3 (would that we had learned the lesson of that reading at that time), saying that there are many Christians in the assembly who may not always be available. The reading stressed that “when ye come together in assembly”

(1 Corinthians 11: 18), is the character of the assembly and not viewed as all being there. In

“two of you” (Matthew 18: 19), the Lord confirms this point; it is the assembly in character in some. The two of you in the prayer meetings are holding the assembly in character. That encouraged me as coming to this meeting tonight. We are but few, but it is to be in character the assembly and governed by the truth of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14. Had we heeded ministry such as in the reading referred to, we would have been saved from making assumptions. That is the Spirit foresaw what would come in among brethren, giving us the truth in advance in the broken day to meet later difficulties. The character of the assembly thus marks the prayer meeting, and the ministry meeting such as we are having tonight.

The Lord in Luke 22 is opening up for us the way to meet the contrivances of Satan. We little know Satan’s desire, in one way and another, to come in among the brethren. Be watchful!

“To sift you as wheat”, that is how the Lord looks at it. In Judges 6, Gideon was threshing wheat in a broken day, separating between what is right and what is wrong. It was that food for the saints might be secured; that food is Christ out of death, and His saints. The Lord here says, “but I have besought for thee that thy faith fail not”, not so much that Peter would not fail, but that his faith should not fail. It is not so much that there might not be failure

with us, but that our faith may not fail. The history has been that brethren have hurt each other and the testimony damaged; the testimony has been removed from places where the Lord set His name. Satan may be at that at the present time. The Lord means here that the faith of the brethren may not be shaken. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him”, 2 Timothy 1: 12. Faith is our link with God and with Christ, and that is what we may be helped to pray for as to one another as the Lord did for Peter. Then He said, “and thou, when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren”, which is a very positive word by the Lord. We should not be going over before the Lord the weaknesses of the brethren, but that the end may be that you and I will be a comfort to the brethren, and strengthen them. Will we continue in faith until the Lord comes? That is the present issue, I feel, whether we will hold to the light of the assembly—“when ye come together in assembly”. Can we fulfil that precious truth even though few in our gatherings?

Paul leads to the matter of prayer in Ephesians 6, where he is speaking of the conflict in the land. It is not only the everyday matters of piety and practical righteousness, all very necessary in the current economic conditions that we are facing everywhere, but the conflict related to entering into the purpose of God. Satan does not want us in the Father’s realm.

“Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated ... and I will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father”, 2 Corinthians 6: 17, 18. If we are not right with the Father as to associations down here, we will not be able to enter His counsel and purpose (Ephesians 1), and enjoy the fulness of His love. The moral side must be right. When Paul visited Ephesus, he was opposed by Demetrius and the artisans, “whom having brought together, and those who wrought in such things” (see Acts 19: 24–31). It was like a manufacturer’s association, not a virulent trade union, but nevertheless used by the enemy against Paul

and his ministry. They would have driven him out of the city. Thus Paul says in Ephesians 6,

“watching unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints; and for me ... to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings” (Ephesians 6: 18, 19). He preached that in Ephesus and was resisted by this artisan association and other elements too, but he was not overthrown, and the brethren stood with him.

Thus there is great need of prayer at the present time that the mystery of the glad tidings should be made known, which involves Christ and the assembly. It includes the only association we have been called into dear brethren. I am reviewing my associations, if any, and a brother in another locality told me today he was doing the same. The Lord Jesus is in heaven and His body here is to express Him. We are to maintain that without involvement in any other man-made body, according to the mystery of the glad tidings which we preach as did Paul. So Paul asks for ‘supplication for all the saints, and for me’. Paul desired to be prayed for by the brethren. How much more ourselves, especially those who minister, so let us pray for one another. Paul says, “in order that utterance may be given to me ... to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings, for which I am an ambassador bound with a chain”. We too are bound in the sense that we cannot do our own will and act independently of the truth and one another. The point now is to be bold in the truth of Paul’s ministry and Paul’s gospel—the mystery of the glad tidings. We may suffer for it, and will suffer until the Lord comes, but may God give us this boldness to make the gospel known, and maintain it according to the truth.

Word in meeting for ministry, Plainfield
4 February 1992

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