10月17日 更大的事

我实实在在地告诉你们，我所作的事，信我的人也要作；并且要作比这更大的事，因为我往父那里去。（约翰福音14：12）

祷告不是装备我们去做更大的事；祷告本身就是最大的事。我们往往视祷告为超然能力的操练，好预备我们做神的工。但按主的教训，祷告是救赎的神迹在我身上运行，以致神的大能可把这神迹成就在别人身上。果子若要存留，必须藉祷告，但得记着祷告是建基在救赎的苦痛上，而不是自我的痛苦。惟有小孩子的祷告才蒙应允，明哲人反得不着。

不管你在什么地方，祷告就是那要打的仗。不管神安排怎么样的环境，你的责任就是祷告。切勿这样想：“我在这岗位上一无用处。”因为你不守住岗位，那才真是一无用处。神不论加给你怎样的际遇，总要祷告，每时每刻向祂倾吐。“你们若奉我的名求什么，我必成就。”（约翰福音14:14）我们激奋时才肯祷告，这其实是最严重的属灵自私。我们要依着神的方向去做工，而祂说“要祷告”，“所以你们当求庄稼的主，打发工人出去收他的庄稼。”（马太福音9:38）

劳苦的工作，没有刺激兴奋可言；但惟有藉劳苦做工的人，理想才得以实现。同样，做工的信徒能使主的心意实现。你在祷告中劳苦，从神的角度看来，果效是不住实现的。将来当帕子揭开，知道不少灵魂因着你不住的顺服而得救，那是何等的惊喜。

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.