How to Pray in Accordance With God’s Will

The Outcomes and the Content of Prayer

What can be effected through prayer? We have to be clear on this. First of all, prayer can enable man to understand God’s word, to understand the truth of His word. This is the first outcome. Secondly, prayer can enable us to understand God’s will, to understand what He requires of us. Thirdly, prayer can increase our faith; in times of trial and tribulation, in particular, prayer enables us to confidently walk the road ahead. Fourthly, prayer enables us to feel God as dear and beloved, and to grow a heart that loves God and satisfies Him. Finally, prayer enables us to truly know God, especially His disposition, His loveliness, and His wondrous works. The more we pray, the more we sense the wonder of God, the more we touch Him. Hence, the more we pray, the more we come to know God. Prayer is the only way for man to come into contact with God’s Spirit. Without prayer, you have no means to contact God’s Spirit. God sees into man’s heart, yet man cannot see Him. But through prayer we touch the work of the Holy Spirit, we understand the work of the Holy Spirit and know what the Holy Spirit does upon us and with what effects. This produces real knowledge of God. Prayer can effect so many outcomes upon us, and has then an immeasurable effect on our salvation through belief in God, on our entering the truth to our final perfection by God. A heart that truly loves God is won through prayer. When man does not pray or prays little, he does not know God, and even should he wish to love God he will fail. Through prayer we are able to know something of how God’s Spirit acts, what it is to be moved by God’s Spirit; we are able to know something of God. In this way, we can see His wondrousness, and a heart is born within us that loves Him. Thus, contacting God’s Spirit through prayer results in a genuine knowledge of God. Now, many people know how to pray, and have some experience of it. It is through this experience that they have learned how to have their prayers heard, and what kind of prayers God will not answer. I believe all of us have some experience and knowledge of this. What is the nature of prayers that God hears? It must be a prayer that accords with His will. If we pray to God to understand the truth, do you think this accords with His will? If we pray for guidance of the Holy Spirit, does this accord with His will? Such prayers are all in accordance with His will. Praying to seek out God’s will, to seek out what He requires of us, accords too with His will. Praying for God to deal with real difficulties within our family accords with His will: When we seek to entrust the unbelievers in our family to God for Him to save them, that accords too with His will. When we pray for our brothers and sisters, when we pray for those religious people to return to God, this all accords with God’s will. When we meet with persecution, with adversity or are faced with all kinds of disasters and we pray for God’s deliverance, this too accords with His will. You can say that all prayers that accord with His will, will be heard. Then what might you pray for that does not accord with His will? Some pray to be rich; do you think that accords with God’s will? Some pray for their children to get into university; does that accord with His will? Some pray for God to find them a good job with more money; does that accord with His will? Or some pray for God to find them a suitable spouse; does that accord with His will? None of these prayers accord with God’s will. It is clear now too what kind of prayers do not accord with His will, isn’t it? How should we then distinguish between those things we pray for that are in accordance with God’s will and those that are not? We must be able to distinguish. We have to figure out in our own hearts the things we encounter that can be brought before God in prayer. Since the work of God is to save man, if what we pray for is in contradiction to our seeking salvation from God, if it conflicts with that, and is not beneficial to our salvation, then we need not pray for such a thing. For example, if you wish to go among the unbelievers to get rich, is this not rebellion? Does praying for this accord with God’s will? For certain, it does not. Do not pray or ask for anything that betrays God, or that offends Him. So, we have to distinguish which things accord with God’s will and should be put in our prayers, and which things do not. Furthermore, there are times we encounter something, and we are faced with a choice: Do we choose to care for God’s will or care for and submit to the flesh? These are times when man is tested, and we see which road man will take; this is temptation coming upon us. Therefore, in praying we must make distinction; we should pray for whatever things we ought to. How do we judge which things we should pray for, according to what do we ascertain them? We discern them on the basis of God’s work, on the basis of His word. Judging from what the work is that God does, do the things we pray for conflict with God’s work? Do they interrupt His work, are they beneficial to our seeking salvation? We ascertain the things we should pray for on these grounds. And what problem does this touch upon? In praying before God man must possess conscience and reason, he must possess a pure and open, an honest heart; you cannot be deceitful with God, you must be pure and open. You must possess a heart that seeks the truth, a heart that thirsts for the truth. Most importantly, you must possess a heart that genuinely loves God, a heart obedient to God. Only in this way, when coming before Him to pray, are we pleasing to God. If the heart you bear within does not love God, is not obedient to Him, and yet you pray, saying “God, what am I to do in this matter?”, and you are not willing to obey, then you are seeking God’s agreement to your rebelling against Him, to contravening Him. Is this not an expression of blasphemy? Such prayer will not be pleasing to God, and He will say, “When you pray you still are disobeying Me, you still are going against Me, you are not seeking the truth at all, you have not an iota of obedience in you.” So, there are prayers that do not accord with God’s will, that go against God, that disobey Him, prayers that you must not pray to Him. If you pray thus, you are going against God; to put it seriously, this is blasphemy. What we bring before God to pray for must accord with His will; we must be genuinely seeking truth, and not testing God. There are some whose prayers are testing in nature; they are only too eager for God to fulfill their wishes, to satisfy their needs of the flesh, to satisfy their extravagant desires. If man comes before God to pray with such a heart, this is utterly unacceptable to Him for this is an expression of going against Him, of opposing Him. In addition, there are some meaningless things we need not pray for. What are the meaningless things? Some will pray to God as to whether they should read His word, or whether they should meet together; there are even some who will pray to Him as to whether they should eat, or whether they should go shopping. They ask God whether He agrees, whether He permits. I ask you, does such prayer have any meaning? Such people appear a little crazy; they’re not too normal. I have observed that some people who are afflicted by evil spirits pray much this way: They even pray to God about going to the restroom, about whether they’re allowed; when they go to eat, they ask Him whether they’re allowed. Even more absurd are those who when they go to do any little thing, have God do it for them: When they go out the door, they have God watch over their home, protect their property and keep thieves away. Don’t you think praying for these kinds of things is absurd? What kind of prayers a person puts before God proves what kind of person they are. What someone absurd prays for is also absurd.

From Classic Selections From Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life

Documentary Trailer "The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything" | The Rise and Fall of Nations

What I gain from this movie:

From everlasting to the present, God holds sovereignty over all things in the universe. The mountain and the river which we can see, the birth, aging, sickness, and death of the human, the interchanging cycles of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the law of all things and living beings, the rise and fall of nations throughout history… Everything shows forth the authority and power of God. gospel movies shows us the creation and sovereignty of God. And we can truly feel the Creator is not far from us at all!

Is the rise and fall of a country or nation the result of human actions? Is it a natural law? What kind of mystery is contained within? Exactly who commands the rise and fall of a country or nation? The Christian musical documentary The One Who Holds Sovereignty Over Everything will soon reveal the mystery!

The Mystery of the Incarnation (4) (Selection)

　　

　　In the Age of Grace, Jesus did much of that work, such as healing sickness, casting out demons, laying His hands upon man to pray for man, and blessing man. However, to continue to do so would serve no purpose in the present day. The Holy Spirit worked in that way at the time, for it was the Age of Grace, and man was shown enough grace for enjoyment. Man did not have to pay any price and could receive grace as long as he had faith. All were treated very graciously. Now, the age has changed, and the work of God has progressed further; through His chastisement and judgment, the rebelliousness of man and the unclean things within man will be cast away. As it was the stage of redemption, God had to do such work, showing man enough grace for man to enjoy, so that He could redeem man from sin, and through grace forgive man their sins. This stage is done to reveal the iniquities within man through chastisement, judgment, the smiting of words, as well as the discipline and revelation of words, so that they may afterward be saved. This is work more in-depth than redemption. In the Age of Grace, man enjoyed enough grace and has already experienced this grace, and so it is no longer to be enjoyed by man. Such work is now out-of-date and is no longer to be done. Now, man is saved through judgment by the word. After man is judged, chastised and refined, his disposition is thereby changed. Is this not because of the words I have spoken? Each stage of work is done in line with the progress of all mankind and with the age. All work has its significance; it is done for the final salvation, for mankind to have a good destination in the future, and for man to be divided according to their kind in the end.

Meeting the Lord Again

Jianding, USA

　I was born into a Catholic family, and from an early age my mother taught me to read the Bible. At the time, the Chinese Communist Party was re-building the nation after the civil war, and as the CCP was suppressing all religions, I was 20 years old before I finally got the chance to go to church and listen to sermons. The priest often said to us: “We Catholics must properly confess our sins and repent. We must do good, not evil, and always go to Mass. During the last days, the Lord is going to come and judge everyone and send people to heaven or to hell according to how they have acted and behaved on earth. The biggest sinners will be punished in hell eternally, whereas those who commit minor sins can still go to heaven as long as they confess their sins to the Lord and repent. Anyone who doesn’t believe in the Lord will never get to heaven, no matter how good they are.” Whenever I heard this, I always congratulated myself for having the good fortune to be a member of the Catholic congregation from birth. I’d always tell myself to pursue hard, attend Mass more, and confess sins and repent to the Lord more, and that way I’d go to heaven and not suffer in hell. So that’s when I developed the determination to go to church and participate in Mass regularly. At that time, the priest also told us that in 2000 the Lord would return, and this news made us all very excited. So we all began to pursue earnestly, waiting for the Lord’s return. But the year 2000 came and went and we didn’t see any sign of the Lord’s return. Many in our congregation lost their faith, and fewer and fewer people attended church for Mass. I also felt a sense of loss, but I still felt that my faith in the Lord wouldn’t be shaken, no matter what others did. That was mainly because there had been many times when I’d been in danger and the Lord had protected me and made the danger disappear. Without the Lord’s protection I’d have died long ago, so I wasn’t going to be so ungrateful as to lose faith in the Lord.

　

To Love God Is My Wish

I

I lived in a bleak world,

never knowing truth.

I read the Almighty's word

and now I know the meaning of life.

What a great surprise,

Christ brings light to the world.

From His judgment

I've found the path to eternal life.

I treasure God's word,

I treasure God's truth.

How precious truth is!

Bathed in God's fountain of life.

To love God is my wish,

for eternity it's what I will do.

To love God is my wish,

I really want to. Hallelujah!

The Minimum Reason That Ought to Be Possessed in Serving God

People who serve God all ought to know that if those who serve God are not people who have been perfected by God, then they are not suitable for being used by God. That’s because corrupt humanity all has the nature of resisting and betraying God, and they all have arrogant, conceited, self-important, and self-righteous dispositions. When they perform their duties, they are willing to do it according to their own will, but they are not willing to search for the will of God, and they are even more unwilling to seek fellowship. They do not have true obedience to God, yet they greedily enjoy the benefits of their positions without any reason at all. If they do a few days of work, they will start getting arrogant, and they will start asking God for crown and blessing, and they will prepare to rule together with God. Once they receive being pruned or dealt with or God’s elimination, they start complaining and are shamed into anger, thinking that serving God is like the perilous condition of serving a wild tiger. They have not recognized that God is righteous, good, and beautiful, but people are too corrupt and too lacking in humanity, deserving punishment for their crimes. In people’s hearts, God is not fair to humans, as if God has treated them wrongfully. This kind of people serve God for several years, but they become God’s enemies, openly resisting and judging God. How could this kind of people be suited to God’s use? If people who serve God are truly people who pursue the truth, they should recognize the source of corrupt humanity’s resistance of God, they should recognize their own nature of resisting God, they should recognize that when corrupt humanity serves God they ought to receive pruning and dealing, and especially they ought to receive God’s judgment and chastisement. If in their service they disrupt God’s work by mixing in human will or diverting the work onto their own paths, then they should even receive God’s punishments and curses and obey God’s work. Only in this way can people achieve changes in life disposition through service and walk on the right track of serving God.

2018 Praise and Worship Music "Only Honest People Have a Human Likeness" | The Love of God Saved Me

I

For profit I abandoned all standards of conduct,

and brazenly used deception to make my living.

I cared nothing for conscience or morals, nothing for integrity or dignity.

I lived only to slake my ever-growing lust and greed.

With an uneasy heart, I scrabbled in a mire of sin,

with no way to escape this boundless darkness.

The riches of life and transient pleasures

could not hide the emptiness and pain in my heart.

It is simple to write the word “man.”

But to be honest and trustworthy is harder than hard.

Who can save me from this abyss of sin?

"God's Work, God's Disposition, and God Himself I" (Part Four)

God's words in this video are from the book "Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh". The content of this video: 3. God Makes the Rainbow as a Symbol of His Covenant With Man

Feeling after watching:

He Who Fears God and Shuns Evil Is Precious in God’s Eyes. Gaining Those Who Know God and Can Bear Witness to God Is God’s Never-changing Will.