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Andrew Murray With Christ In the School of Prayer: |
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Thoughts On Our Training For The Ministry Of Intercession Preface: Power with God is the highest attainment of the life of full abiding.
Of
all the promises connected with the command, ‘Abide In Me,’
there is none higher, and none that sooner brings the confession, ‘Not
that I have already attained, or am already made perfect,’ than this:
‘If ye abide in me, ask
whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’
Power with
God is the highest attainment of the life of full abiding. And of all the traits of a life Like Christ there is none higher and more glorious than conformity to Him in the work that now engages Him without ceasing in the Father’s presence—His all-prevailing intercession. The more we abide in Him, and grow unto His likeness, will His priestly life work in us mightily, and our life become what His is, a life that ever pleads and prevails for men. I
feel sure that as long as we look on prayer chiefly as the means of
maintaining our own Christian life, we shall not know fully what it is
meant to be.
‘Thou hast made us kings and priests unto
God.’ Both in the king
and the priest the chief thing is power, influence, blessing.
In the king it is the power coming
downward; in the priest, the power rising upward, prevailing with God.
In our blessed Priest-King, Jesus Christ, the kingly power is
founded on the priestly ‘He is able to save to the uttermost, because
He ever liveth to make intercession.’
In us, His priests and kings, it is no otherwise:
it is in intercession that the Church is to find and wield its
highest power, that each member of the Church is to prove his descent
from Israel, who as a prince had power with God and with men, and
prevailed. It is under a deep impression that the place and power of prayer in the Christian life is too little understood, that this book has been written. I feel sure that as long as we look on prayer chiefly as the means of maintaining our own Christian life, we shall not know fully what it is meant to be. But when we learn to regard it as the highest part of the work entrusted to us, the root and strength of all other work, we shall see that there is nothing that we so need to study and practice as the art of praying aright. ...it is only when the Church gives herself up to this holy work of intercession that we can expect the power of Christ to manifest itself in her behalf.
If I have at all succeeded in
pointing out the progressive teaching of our Lord in regard to prayer,
and the distinct reference the wonderful promises of the last night
(John xiv. 16)
have to the works we are to do in His Name, to the greater works, and to
the bearing much fruit; we shall all admit that it is only when the
Church gives herself up to this holy work of intercession that we can
expect the power of Christ to manifest itself in her behalf.
It is my prayer that God may use this little book to make clearer
to some of His children the wonderful place of power and influence which
He is waiting for them to occupy, and for which a weary world is waiting
too. In connection with this there is another truth that has come to me with wonderful clearness as I studied the teaching of Jesus on prayer. It is this: that the Father waits to hear every prayer of faith, to give us whatsoever we will, and whatsoever we ask in Jesus’ name. We have become so accustomed to limit the wonderful love and the large promises of our God, that we cannot read the simplest and clearest statements of our Lord without the qualifying clauses by which we guard and expound them. Many complain that they have not the power to pray in faith, to pray the effectual prayer that availeth much. The message I would fain bring them is that the blessed Jesus is waiting, is longing, to teach them this.
If there is one thing I think the
Church needs to learn, it is that God means prayer to have an answer,
and that it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive what God
will do for His child who gives himself to believe that his prayer will
be heard.
God hears prayer; this is a truth universally admitted,
but of which very few understand the meaning, or experience the power.
If what I have written stir my reader to go to the Master’s
words, and take His wondrous promises simply and literally as they
stand, my object has been attained. And then just one thing more. Thousands have in these last years found an unspeakable blessing in learning how completely Christ is our life, and how He undertakes to be and to do all in us that we need. I know not if we have yet learned to apply this truth to our prayer-life. Many complain that they have not the power to pray in faith, to pray the effectual prayer that availeth much. The message I would fain bring them is that the blessed Jesus is waiting, is longing, to teach them this. Christ is our life: in heaven He ever liveth to pray; His life in us is an ever-praying life, if we will but trust Him for it. ...go and abide in Him for our prayer-life too...
Christ teaches us to pray not only
by example, by instruction, by command, by promises, but by showing
us Himself, the ever-living Intercessor, as our Life.
It is when we believe this, and go and abide in Him for our
prayer-life too, that our fears of not being able to pray aright will
vanish, and we shall joyfully and triumphantly trust our Lord to teach
us to pray, to be Himself the life and the power of our prayer.
May God open our eyes to see what the holy ministry of
intercession is to which, as His royal priesthood, we have been set
apart. May He give us a
large and strong heart to believe what mighty influence our prayers can
exert. And may all fear as
to our being able to fulfill our vocation vanish as we see Jesus, living
ever to pray, living in us to pray, and standing surety for our
prayer-life. Andrew Murray Wellington,
28th October 1895 _______________________________ Copyright © 2001 S.G.P. All rights reserved. Next Next Topic Andrew Murray Index
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Andrew Murray 1828-1917 Author of over 250 books, he was the minister at the Dutch Reformed Church of Wellington (South Africa) from 1871 to 1906, and lived there until his death in 1917. His vision for winning Africa for Christ led him beyond the borders of Wellington. Missionaries from Wellington penetrated into the heart of Africa. He was a proponent and at the forefront in founding schools both of education for girls, and of Higher Education for women.
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This statue of Andrew
Murray was erected in Wellington in 1923