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Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee
Watchman Nee continues his fellowship on the prayer meeting of the local church:
C. Being Genuine
Another basic requirement is to be genuine in our prayer. I am afraid that many words in the prayer meeting are spoken in vain. Many people pay attention to the nicety of the words and care little whether or not God listens to them. It seems to be of little consequence to them that God does not listen to their prayers. Such prayers in the prayer meeting are often artificial and vain.
Genuine prayer is the result of a desire that comes from the heart. It is something that flows out from our inner being. Genuine prayer is not made up of flippant and nice words. Only genuine words that flow out from the deepest part of the heart can be considered as genuine prayer. The goal of our prayer should be an answer from God rather than pleasing the brothers and sisters.
If we are not genuine in our prayer, we cannot expect the church to be strong. In order for the church to be strong, the prayer meeting must be strong. In order for the prayer meeting to be strong, all the prayers have to be genuine; no prayer should be artificial. If we are not genuine, we cannot expect to receive anything from God.
Prayer is not a sermon; it is not a speech. To pray is to ask the Lord for something. We do not need to speak many words before God in the prayer meeting, as if God knows nothing and needs to be informed of all the details. We do not need to make a report or preach a message to Him. We pray because we have a need and because we are weak. We want to receive spiritual supply and power through prayer. The amount of genuine prayer we have depends on the amount of need that we feel. If we do not feel any need, our prayers will be vain prayers.
One basic reason for vain prayers is that a person is too conscious of others in the prayer meeting. As soon as we pay attention to others, our prayer is easily filled with vain words. On the one hand, our prayer in the prayer meeting is offered on behalf of the whole meeting. On the other hand, we have to pray as if we were alone before God; we have to pray to God in a genuine way according to our needs.
The more urgent our need is, the more genuine our prayer will be. The Lord Jesus once gave an illustration. A man had a visitor to his house, but he ran out of bread. So he went to his friend for bread. The need was urgent; he had no bread. After asking persistently, the other friend gave in to his need. The Lord Jesus then said, “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened” (Luke 11:10). If the need is urgent and we ask properly, it shall be given to us.
(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 3, Vol. 48, 204-205)
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