How does one enter into true prayer?
Whilst praying, your heart must be at peace before God, and it must be sincere. You are truly communing and praying with God; you must not deceive God using nice-sounding words. Prayer is centered around that which God wishes to complete today. Ask God to bring you greater enlightenment and illumination, and bring your actual state and troubles before God to pray, and make resolution before God. Prayer is not the following of procedure, but the seeking of God using your true heart. Ask that God protect your heart, making it able to often be at peace before God, making you able to know yourself, and despise yourself, and forsake yourself in the environment that God has set for you, thus allowing you to have a normal relationship with God and making you someone who truly loves God.
What is the significance of prayer?
Prayer is one of the ways in which man cooperates with God, it is a means by which man calls upon God, and it is the process by which man is touched by God’s Spirit. It can be said that those who are without prayer are dead ones without spirit, proof that they lack the faculties to be touched by God. Without prayer, they are unable to attain a normal spiritual life, much less are they able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit; without prayer, they sever their relationship with God, and are incapable of receiving God’s approval. Being someone who believes in God, the more you pray, the more you are touched by God. Such people have greater resolution and are more able to receive the latest enlightenment from God; as a result, only people like this can be made perfect as soon as possible by the Holy Spirit.
What is the effect to be achieved by prayer?
People are able to carry out the practice of prayer and understand the significance of prayer, but the effect to be achieved by prayer is no simple matter. Prayer is not a case of going through the formalities, or following procedure, or reciting the words of God, which is to say, prayer does not mean parroting words and copying others. In prayer, you must give your heart to God, sharing the words in your heart with God so that you may be touched by God. If your prayers are to be effective, then they must be based on your reading of God’s words. Only by praying amid God’s words will you be able to receive more enlightenment and illumination. A true prayer is shown by having a heart that yearns for the requirements made by God, and being willing to fulfill these requirements; you will be able to hate all that God hates, upon the basis of which you will have knowledge, and will know and be clear about the truths explained by God. Having the resolution, and faith, and knowledge, and a path by which to practice after praying—only this is truly praying, and only prayer such as this can be effective. Yet prayer must be built upon the foundation of enjoying God’s words and communing with God in His words and your heart is able to seek God and be at peace before God. Such prayer has already reached the point of true communion with God.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Concerning the Practice of Prayer
How to Enter Into True Prayer
I
During prayer your heart must be at peace before God, your heart must be sincere. Truly commune when you pray to God. Don’t cheat God with words pleasing to the ear. So your heart will be quiet before God. And in the environments arranged for you, you will then know yourself and hate yourself, you will hate yourself and forsake yourself. So you’ll have normal relations with God, and become someone who truly loves, loves God, loves, loves God, become someone who truly loves, loves God.
II
Prayer must surround what God will do today. Ask for greater illumination, bring your state and troubles before God and speak to Him your resolution. So your heart will be quiet before God. And in the environments arranged for you, you will then know yourself and hate yourself, you will hate yourself and forsake yourself. So you’ll have normal relations with God, and become someone who truly loves, loves God, loves, loves God, become someone who truly loves, loves God.
III
Prayer is not to follow procedure but to seek God with your sincerity. Pray for God to protect your heart. Ask for God to protect your heart. So your heart will be quiet before God. And in the environments arranged for you, you will then know yourself and hate yourself, you will hate yourself and forsake yourself. So you’ll have normal relations with God, and become someone who truly loves, loves God, loves, loves God, become someone who truly loves, loves God.
from Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs