DASH INTO THE DEPTH OF THE SPIRIT
Praying is a profound task of
mystery. It is superbly blessed for one
to be able to step into the depth of the door, having spiritual communion with
God. However, to enter the depth of the door, one must overcome the physical
weariness and kneeling pain, thinking of the prayer as the source of strength,
wisdom and joy.
Start From the Knees
In May 1985, all church members
were joyful and excited in preparing for the church dedication occasion. After the morning prayer
on the Sabbath, the church announced to exercise the voluntary fasting prayer
for that particular occasion. I joined the fasting prayer then. After that occasion, I was wondering if I
should go on fasting and praying on my own.
With the reflection of the weakness of the church, the believers’
infirmities, and the lost sheep of the fold, I told myself, “How can I do
anything but hold the attitude of observing?” With tears in eyes, I decided to
dedicate my fasting prayer to various items of the holy work. At one night of June 1986, while all my
children were sleeping, I pondered in solitude upon the questions: Have my
prayers reached God? Has Jesus heard my
prayers? … Wit all these questions
lingering in my head, strangely enough, I picked up the Youth Communion of
September 1980 and browsed through the articles. Eventually, I obtained the best answer out of
the book. The content of the article
that I read was as follow.
‘In the dream of a believer (the
author) there were three sisters in Christ kneeling down and praying. Meanwhile the believer saw Jesus was walking
toward them. As Jesus was coming near
the first sister, He comforted and encouraged her with a gentle, kind and affectionate
voice. Then Jesus went on to the second
sister, and laid His hand upon her head, nodded, and walked toward the third
sister. To the third sister, Jesus said
and did nothing but walked past by her.
Thus the believer said to herself in the dream, “The first sister has the highest
spirituality so that the lord loves her profoundly; the second sister’s
spirituality may not be as high as the first one. As for the third sister, she must have sinned
against the Lord and hurt Him so deeply.
While the believer kept guessing, Jesus came to her and said, “You
ignorant woman, you misunderstood me.
The first one is so weak in spirituality that I have to show concern and
affection to her in order to help her make progress in her faith. The second one has stronger faith and immense
love. I have confidence in her that she
can stand firm on my account under any circumstances. The third one has the highest faith and
unfailing love. Now I am finding a way
to train her for the utmost holy work for the future. She understands me and relies on me without
any help of touching, seeing and hearing.
She knows my will and considers it in nay situations. So my love for her cannot be expressed in
words.”‘ After reading this article, I
was greatly exhorted and comforted. I
was delivered from all my previous doubts, and able to dash willingly toward
the door of prayer.
More often we pray submissively
for our needs as well as for further spiritual experience that can bring us to
know God better and deeper. On one
Sabbath in September, 1986, after putting the baby to sleep, I knelt down and
prayed. Fifteen minutes later, one
sister came in and asked me to help taking care of her baby. So I stopped praying and started to study the
Bible. While I was so absorbed in
reading the book of Isaiah, all of a sudden, I heard a beautiful, melodious
wonderful voice singing in chorus coming from above. Having never heard this before, I put down
the Bible and listened quietly. At first
I thought this voice must have come form next prayer room, or from the
chapel. So when I went to the next room
and when to the chapel, I found out that no one was in the prayer room, and
some believers were in the chapel. As I
went back to study the Bible, I heard the wonderful voice again. Eventually, I came to realize that it is the
song of the angel. Filled with joy, I
praised the Lord. Our heavenly Father
knows the needs of His children. With
the song of the angel, He strengthens my faith and elevates my eagerness toward
the prayer in spirit. Thanks the Lord!
Healing of the True God
One morning of February 1987, I was
not feeling so well, and thought that it was not so serious. But in the evening, I felt so weak that I
could not even get up from the bed. Next
day the church members visited me.
Afraid of worrying them, I forced myself to get up and went to attend the
service. In the prayer, I recalled that
it was the first time I got sick since my marriage, and I thanked the Lord for
His protection and care. Thinking of the
lord’s guidance and arrangement in my daily life, I couldn’t help having my
eyes filled with grateful tears. Since I
had a serious flu, I took some medicine.
At that night my four year old daughter had a toothache and cried for
three hours. I just prayed to the Lord
to soothe her suffering pain. Being
afflicted with the flu myself, I couldn’t help her
until my husband came home and bought some medicine for her. Although still not
feeling well, I attended the service the next day as usual, and visited the
church members’ houses. Before we set
out, I prayed to the Lord to heal my headache.
Upon visiting the members’ houses, my heart was overflowing with
joy. On Friday night, still
uncomfortable I went to bed early.
Awaken in the next morning, I remembered that I
had to do some typing and to prepare the lesson for the religious education class. To observe the Sabbath in peace, I hastened
to undertake all the thing I should do. Finally, all
was done by the time the service started to proceed. In peace and rest, I observe the
Sabbath. By the time I knelt down and
prayed in the chapel, I discovered all my suffering and illness were gone. God healed me. At that moment, I offered my thanks and
praise to the Lord in my prayer.
Thanksgiving
Prayer is a long run battle, and
one needs to be trained in it. Upon
entering the depth of our spirit, we will experience the taste of ‘kneeling
with affliction’ and ‘getting up with joy’.
Such kind of feeling is hard to utter, but so wonderful. Within this few years in my life of prayer,
God has granted me uncountable grace.
Although at the very beginning of my praying life, it seemed as if I was
fighting the battle alone. Thanks the
Lord, He added some praying partners subsequently into our praying group.
The grace of the Lord is endless
and bountiful, but it will come to us only if we have the determining will to
kneel and pray. Let us dash toward the
fountain of the living water. Traveling
starts wit our feet, and our knees are the source of grace. May all the members of True Jesus Church
bring up their hands of prayer with willingness, and a pair of
willing-to-be-trained knees.