10月17日 更大的事

我實實在在地告訴你們，我所作的事，信我的人也要作；並且要作比這更大的事，因為我往父那裡去。（約翰福音14：12）

禱告不是裝備我們去做更大的事；禱告本身就是最大的事。我們往往視禱告為超然能力的操練，好預備我們做神的工。但按主的教訓，禱告是救贖的神跡在我身上運行，以致神的大能可把這神跡成就在別人身上。果子若要存留，必須藉禱告，但得記著禱告是建基在救贖的苦痛上，而不是自我的痛苦。惟有小孩子的禱告才蒙應允，明哲人反得不著。

不管你在什麼地方，禱告就是那要打的仗。不管神安排怎麼樣的環境，你的責任就是禱告。切勿這樣想：“我在這崗位上一無用處。”因為你不守住崗位，那才真是一無用處。神不論加給你怎樣的際遇，總要禱告，每時每刻向祂傾吐。“你們若奉我的名求什麼，我必成就。”（約翰福音14:14）我們激奮時才肯禱告，這其實是最嚴重的屬靈自私。我們要依著神的方向去做工，而祂說“要禱告”，“所以你們當求莊稼的主，打發工人出去收他的莊稼。”（馬太福音9:38）

勞苦的工作，沒有刺激興奮可言；但惟有藉勞苦做工的人，理想才得以實現。同樣，做工的信徒能使主的心意實現。你在禱告中勞苦，從神的角度看來，果效是不住實現的。將來當帕子揭開，知道不少靈魂因著你不住的順服而得救，那是何等的驚喜。

October 17 Greater Works

“And greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.” John 14:12

Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a common-sense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God's work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.

Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought – “I am of no use where I am;” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances pray, ejaculate to Him all the time. “Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do.” We won't pray unless we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labour along the line of God's direction, and He says pray. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.”

There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.