— Day 21 —

So Will You Have Power
in Prayer

If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask
what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

John 15:7

Prayer is both one of the means and one of the fruits of union with Christ. As a means it is of great importance. All the things of faith, all the pleadings of desire, all the yearnings after a fuller surrender, all the confessions of shortcoming and of sin, all the exercises in which the soul gives up self and clings to Christ, find their utterance in prayer. In each meditation on abiding in Christ, as some new feature of what Scripture teaches concerning this blessed life is understood, the first impulse of the believer is to look up to the Father and pour out his heart, to ask Him for the full understanding and the full possession of what has been revealed in the Word. And it is the believer who is not content with this spontaneous expression of his hope, but who takes time in secret prayer to wait until he has received what he has seen, who will really grow strong in Christ. However weak the soul’s first abiding, its prayer will be heard, and it will find prayer one of the best means of abiding more abundantly.

But it is not so much as a means but as a fruit of abiding that the Savior mentions it in the parable of the Vine. He does not think of prayer as we too often do—exclusively as a means of getting blessing for ourselves. Rather, He sees prayer as one of the primary channels of influence by which, through us as workers together with God, the blessings of Christ’s redemption are dispensed to the world. He sets before himself and us the glory of the Father, in the extension of His kingdom, as the object for which we have been made branches; and He assures us that if we will only abide in Him, we will be Israels, having power with God and man. Ours will be the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, availing much, like Elijah’s prayer for ungodly Israel (James 5:16–18). Such prayer will be the fruit of our abiding in Him and the means of bearing much fruit.

To the Christian who is not abiding completely in Jesus, the difficulties connected with prayer are often so great that they rob him of the comfort and the strength it could bring. Under the guise of humility, he asks how one so unworthy could expect to have influence with the Holy One. He thinks of God’s sovereignty, His perfect wisdom and love, and cannot see how his prayer can really have any distinct effect. He prays, but it is more because he cannot rest without prayer than from a loving faith that the prayer will be heard. But what a blessed release from such questions and perplexities is given to the soul who is truly abiding in Christ! He realizes more and more how it is in real spiritual unity with Christ that we are accepted and heard. The union with the Son of God is a life union; we are indeed one with Him—our prayer ascends as His prayer. It is because we abide in Him that we can ask what we desire and it is given to us.

There are many reasons why this must be so. One is that abiding in Christ, and having His words abiding in us, teaches us to pray in accordance with the will of God. As we abide in Christ our self-will is kept down, and the thoughts and wishes of the old nature are brought into captivity to the thoughts and wishes of Christ; like-mindedness to Christ grows in us and as a result all our works and desires come into harmony with His. There is deep and frequent heart-searching to see whether the surrender is complete, fervent prayer to the heart-searching Spirit that nothing may be kept back. Everything is yielded to the power of His life in us so that it may exercise its sanctifying influence even on ordinary wishes and desires. His Holy Spirit breathes through our whole being. Without our being conscious how, our desires, as the breathings of the divine life, are brought into conformity with the divine will, and are fulfilled. Abiding in Christ renews and sanctifies the will; we then ask what we will, and it is given to us.

In close connection with this is the thought that abiding in Christ teaches the believer in prayer only to seek the glory of God. In promising to answer prayer, Christ’s one thought (see John 14:13) is this, ‘‘that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’’ In His intercession on earth (John 17), this was His one desire and plea; in His intercession in heaven, it is still His chief object. As the believer abides in Christ, the Savior breathes this desire into him. The thought only the glory of God becomes more and more the keynote of the life hidden in Christ. At first this subdues, quiets, and makes the soul almost afraid to entertain a wish, lest it should not be to the Father’s glory. But when His glory has finally been accepted, and everything yielded to it, it comes with mighty power to enlarge the heart and open it to the vast possibilities in the area of God’s glory. Abiding in Christ, the soul learns not only to desire but also to spiritually discern what will be for God’s glory. One of the first conditions of acceptable prayer is fulfilled in it when, as the fruit of its union with Christ, the whole mind is brought into harmony with that of the Son as He said, ‘‘Father, glorify Your name’’ (John 12:28).

Abiding in Christ, we can freely use the name of Christ. Asking in the name of another means that person has authorized me and sent me to ask. The person doing the asking wants the favor done for him. Believers often try to think of the name of Jesus and His merits, and to talk themselves into the faith that they will be heard, while they painfully acknowledge how little faith they have in His name. They are not living wholly in Jesus’ name. This is obvious because it is only when they begin to pray that they want to take up His name and use it. But this is not what Scripture teaches. The promise ‘‘Whatever you ask in My name’’ (John 14:13) cannot be separated from the command ‘‘Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus’’ (Colossians 3:17).

If the name of Christ is to be at my disposal, so that I may have the full command of it for all I desire, it must be because I first put myself at His disposal, so that He has free and full command of me. It is abiding in Christ that gives us the right and power to use His name with confidence. To Christ, the Father refuses nothing. Abiding in Christ, I come to the Father as one with Him. His righteousness, as well as His Spirit, is in me; the Father sees the Son in me, and gives me my petition. It is not—as so many think—by a sort of imputed act that the Father looks upon us as if we were in Christ, even when we are not, in fact, in Him. No; the Father wants to see us living in Him; in this way our prayer really will have power to prevail. Abiding in Christ not only renews the will to pray in the right spirit but also secures the full power of His merits to us.

Abiding in Christ also works in us the faith that can obtain an answer. ‘‘According to your faith let it be to you’’ (Matthew 9:29); this is one of the laws of the kingdom. ‘‘Believe that you receive them, and you will have them’’ (Mark 11:24). This faith rests upon and is rooted in the Word, but is something infinitely higher than the mere logical conclusion: God has promised, therefore I will obtain. No; faith, as a spiritual act, depends upon the words abiding in us as living power, and so upon the state of the whole inner life. Without fasting and prayer (Mark 9:29), without humility and a spiritual mind (John 5:44), without wholehearted obedience (1 John 3:22), there cannot be this living faith. But as the soul abides in Christ, and grows into the consciousness of its union with Him, and sees how it is only Jesus who makes its petition acceptable, it dares to claim an answer because it knows that it is one with Him. It was by faith it learned to abide in Him; as the fruit of that faith, it rises to even greater faith in all that God has promised to be and to do. It learns to breathe its prayers in deep, quiet, confident assurance: We know we have the petition we ask of Him.

Abiding in Christ keeps us in the place where the answer can be given. Some believers pray earnestly for blessing, but when God comes and looks for them to bless them, they are not to be found. They did not realize that the blessing must not only be asked, but also waited for, and received in prayer. Abiding in Christ is the place for receiving answers. If the answer came outside of Him it would be dangerous in that we would only spend it on our own pleasures (James 4:3). Many of the richest answers—for spiritual grace, for example, or for power to work and to bless others—can only come in the form of a larger experience with God in what He makes Christ to us. The fullness is in Him; abiding in Him is the condition for power in prayer because the answer is treasured up and given in Him.

Believer, abide in Christ, for there in the abiding is the school of prayer—mighty, effectual, answered prayer. Abide in Him, and you will learn what to so many is a mystery: The secret of the prayer of faith is the life of faith—the life that abides in Christ alone.