1017 更大之事的关键
我实实在在地告诉你们…信我的人…要做比这更大的事，因为我往父那里去。《约翰福音 14:12》
祷告并未装备我们去做更大的事——祷告才是更大的事。然而，我们认为祷告是我们更高力量的常识性练习，就是预备我们做神的工。在耶稣基督的教导中，祷告是救赎的神迹在我身上工作，然后在别人身上经由神的权能而产生救赎的神迹。果子继续结实之道是通过祷告，但请记住：是基于基督救赎中受苦的祷告，而非基于我自己的痛苦。我们必须以神的孩子身份来到神面前，因为只有孩子的祷告才蒙应允。 「聪明」的人反倒得不着（见马太福音11:25）。
祷告就是打仗，你在哪里都没有差别。无论神如何策划你的处境，你的职责就是祷告。永远不可允许自己这种想法：「我在这里毫无用处」，因为你尚未在被安置之地，你当然是毫无用处。无论神把你安置在何处，无论你的处境如何，你都应该祷告，继续向祂献上祷告。祂应许说：「你们奉我的名无论求什么，我必成就…」（约翰福音 14:13）。然而我们拒绝祷告，除非那激动我们或令我们感到兴奋，这是灵性自私最强烈的形式。我们必须学会按照神的指示作工，而祂说要祷告：「当求庄稼的主打发工人出去收祂的庄稼。」（马太福音 9:38）
工人的工作并没有什么令人兴奋，但正是劳动者使天才的想法成为可能；正是劳动的圣徒使他主人的想法成为可能。当你在祷告中劳苦努力时，从神的角度来看，总是有结果的。一旦帕子最终被揭开，所有被你收割了的灵魂，就是因为你一直习惯于听从耶稣基督的命令，那将是何等惊喜啊！
来自章伯斯的智慧
基督徒对圣经的重要关系不是他崇拜字句，而是圣灵使圣经的字句成为他的灵和生命。《救赎心理学》
1017 The Key of the Greater Work
…I say to you, he who believes in Me…greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. —John 14:12
Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).
Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do…” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).
There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L