PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Dealing with the flesh is not a shallow matter, for our entire fallen being is the flesh. In a sense, the flesh is just we ourselves. To deal with the flesh is much more difficult than to deal with the world or with sin. In order to deal with the totality of our fallen being, we need much prayer in union with the intercession of the heavenly Christ. To pray in this way, we must be identified with Christ and one with Him. As He prays in the heavens, we pray together with Him. If we would pray in this way, we need to be stirred in our spirit by the priesthood and subdued by the kingship. We also need to care for God's building. Then we shall have the necessary support to sustain our prayer life.

In 17:12 we are told that Aaron and Hur took a stone and put it under Moses, and he sat on it. This indicates that our prayer life must have a solid base. When I was young, I learned to pray, but my prayer did not have a solid base. This is also true of many Christians today. They have learned to pray, but they lack a solid base for their prayer life. I do not believe that, according to the context of Exodus 17, the strong base for our prayer life is Christ directly. Instead, I believe that the stone used as the strong base refers to our realization that in ourselves we are not able to sustain a prayer life. It is the recognition of the fact that we need support. In our natural life we, like Moses, are not able to persevere in prayer. We simply cannot continue our prayer all day long. Thus, we need to realize our weakness. This realization gives us the strong base we need for our prayer life.

When you are about to pray, you need to realize that in yourself you are not able to pray. Every praying person can testify that it is not possible to have a prayer life without a strong base. We need something solid to uphold our life of prayer. Whenever you pray, tell the Lord, "Lord, I am not able to continue in prayer. I need a solid base for my prayer, and I take You as such a base."

I am burdened to share this point because I realize that one of the biggest problems we face is that of our prayer life. If we want our prayer life to be preserved, we need to take care of four matters: the solid base, the priesthood, the kingship, and the building of the tabernacle. Then our prayer life will be upheld.

Verse 11 says, "And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed." This indicates that whenever our prayer life becomes heavy, our flesh will prevail. We know this from our experience. Only a proper prayer life can defeat our flesh. Do not think that because you have been saved a long time and have had certain spiritual experiences, your flesh can no longer become prevailing. It is a fact that if our prayer ceases, our flesh will spontaneously show itself to be the same as that of unbelievers. No matter how rich our spiritual experience may be, this experience will not cause our flesh to improve. Our flesh will not even be influenced by it. The flesh cannot be influenced, changed, or improved, even after you have been a Christian for many decades. If your prayer ceases, your flesh will be the same today as it was before you were saved. Because the flesh does not change or improve, we need to pray without ceasing....

Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, Message 47, pp. 542-551

APPLICATION

1. What is the significance of Moses' prayer and the support of his hands by Aaron and Hur?

2. What are the four basic matters we must have for the preservation of our prayer life?

3. Why is proper prayer needed to defeat our flesh?