Ministry
by Andrew Robertson

The apostle Paul refers to the matter of prayer in Romans 12. He says,

• “As regards prayers, persevering”, verse 12.

• But then, while Paul refers to the need for prayer in what we often speak of as the basic epistle to the Romans, he brings in the need for prayer in the highest presentation of the truth, namely in Ephesians,
  • indicating to us that despite the fulness of all that has come to us in the accredited ministry of the recovery, and of the very day in which we are,

• there is, might I say, an increasing need for recourse in prayer into the presence of God in relation to the testimony.

• I do believe that there is nothing that tests us more than the matter of perseverance, and therefore
  • our ability to continue in prayer is what the Spirit is drawing attention to now.

• Ofttimes in the burdens that we carry in our affections, we find a certain lack of power with us to carry the matter in prayer to the conclusion that God has in mind, but I believe that
  • the Spirit of God would encourage all our hearts to know what it is to have increased recourse to it, so that prayer should become a real power amongst the saints.

While no doubt there might be other applications of the Scripture in 1 Samuel 1, I have in mind tonight, by the Spirit, to speak of the exercise and depth of feeling and prayer that goes with it,

• in view of the production of what is for God, we might say, in smallness in Samuel, and yet bearing all the features that are proper to us in relation to God.

Then in Daniel 6 we see the resort that we should have to prayer, feelingly in regard to the pressures of the testimony, seen typically in what came in to bear in a peculiar way on Daniel, and no doubt on those were with him,

• and how Daniel takes the exercise up and meets the challenge of the enemy on his knees in prayer to God.

• So that I believe what the Spirit in stressing is the unbounded resources of heaven that are available to us, but that – I would say reverently –
  • are only tapped in the power of the Spirit as we know what it is to really get into the presence of God in relation to what is needed from heaven for the preservation, and blessing, and prosperity of divine interests on the earth.

In Acts 9, we have the great matter, in principle, of what is resuscitated, and there is not one of our localities, dear brethren, that does not carry cases that need to be resuscitated, the revival of life amongst us.

• So I believe that Peter indicates that while gift is right and is to be used, and is brought in by the disciples, yet Peter brings in the power of heaven in prayer in relation to the dead body of Tabitha.

One would desire to be brief tonight because the subject is wide, and as having some understanding of my own small measure, and yet desirous that the Spirit of God might develop things in view of the encouragement of all our hearts.

• The matter of prayer comes out, of course, primarily in the Lord Jesus.

• We think of Luke’s gospel and the number of times that the Lord Jesus, that dependent Man, is found in prayer to His Father in relation to every movement of His pathway here, so that His disciples, moved by the example and what they saw in Him, say,
  • “Lord, teach us to prayer”, Luke 11: 1.

• I believe that the principle in that chapter is a real word to us especially as we are found together in assembly prayer on Monday nights.

• It says as to the Lord Jesus,
  • “When he ceased”.

• The brethren will understand that my knowledge of things in this city is very limited, but I believe that, as having some little knowledge of what obtains in other parts, it is a needed word.

• It ways of the Lord, “When he ceased”, indicating to us, I believe, that the matter of prayer is not only to be marked by beginnings, but, dear brethren, is to marked by the Spirit of intelligence as to when to cease.

• So that perseverance in prayer is not a matter of capability to occupy time on Monday nights for ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes but I believe it is
  • the ability given by the Spirit of God, in line with His feelings, delicate feelings, as to the exercises that are current amongst the saints, and what may be at present bearing on the testimony in our localities, and amongst the saints universally.

• Perseverance would involve the way that we proceed in the matter; the power we have by the Spirit to continue, perhaps, over a long period of time;
  • but then the power, by the Spirit, to see the exercises through with God to the divine end.

I do not know how the matter may affect the saints in this locality, it may not apply, but then it may apply, and if it does I believe

• the Spirit of God would speak to us so that there might be more freshness and more life, and more scope given, not only to the knowledge that the saints have of current exercises, but

• increased scope for the feelings of the saints, which, dear brethren, after all, are of supreme importance.

• I believe we cannot make enough of the feelings of the saints that enter into the exercises of the testimony.

• The Spirit would give us intelligence so that every exercise borne in the hearts of the brothers, and in the affections of our sisters too, might find expression, by the Spirit, in prayer before the throne of grace.

In our verse in Ephesians it says,

• “Praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in [the] Spirit”.

• The mere rehearsal, dear brethren, of circumstances as they may be known to us, is not what the apostle Paul is getting at here, he speaking of “praying … with all prayer in [the] Spirit”.

• I believe that involves the nearness that we should know to the heart of God Himself, so that our prayers are channeled along the way that God is moving, and are not at cross-purposes in any sense with what He is working out.

• In the practical expression of it, the matter of disturbances, and the threat of war on the earth – all that is transpiring at the present time – I believe
  • one of the most testing things to us is whether we are praying for peace for the sake of it or whether we are in line with the mind of God;

• because while God will preserve a way through for His people, I believe, dear brethren that as we are in the current of what the Spirit is bringing out, He would impress our hearts that the Kingdom under Christ is about to come in.

• So that certain things will have to proceed, and we need to be ready for them, but I believe the spirit of God would make us intelligent so that we might understand what is developing under the hand of God, controlled in every sense by God himself.

• While it might involve persecution, and hardships for the saints – for I believe the terrible happenings of the last few years have made an impression on all our hearts – yet
  • the working out of things under the hand of God needs to be our minds, and in our hearts, so that we may be in the current and good of what God is doing in relation to the bringing in of things under Christ.

• We may see it in relation to the rapture, but then we need to understand it in relation to the kingdom coming in in all it’s glory.

• Things are moving in that way period. I believe we need intelligence by the spirit of God so that our prayers may parallel the divine will. Therefore, Paul says,
  • “And watching unto this very thing, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”.

• I believe it is a salutary word to us dear brethren, as to whether we are watching, because intelligent prayer does not involve that matters come in suddenly and take us by surprise.

• The matter of watching is linked on with prayer, so the saints, above all, are to be alert as to what is proceeding.
  • “Praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in [the] Spirit, and watching unto the very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”.

• Mr. Taylor has said, “moving around amongst the saints I do not see much in the way of universal prayer”,
  • and I believe the Spirit of God would be peculiarly encourage us, dear brethren, at the very close of the dispensation, that we might know more of this in our prayers,

• and to see whether we have been actually in our thoughts embracing all the saints or not.

• The Spirit of God would give us the feelings, and give us the capacity, to embrace all saints in our affections,
  • and that is not only the saints with whom we are privileged to walk,

• but I believe the Spirit of God would give us the capacity to be expanded in our affections and in our minds, to embrace everything that Christ has here,
  • especially in view of what might be gathered out, even now, before the time of the Lord’s coming for us, and have its place livingly amongst the saints who are moving in the light of the Assembly.

• So that the Spirit of God would impress us with the power that prayer brings in.

• To often, dear brethren, in our thoughts we are at a loss what to do, and what to think, when all power that is available to us is here, and the vehicle – one would say reverently – that brings it in, is “praying … with all prayer … in [the] Spirit”.

I move on to the Scripture in 1 Samuel, because there we have the great matter of the feelings of Hannah.

• We might speak of the Scripture, indeed, as bearing on what is natural, the feelings which she had in relation to the child; but I think it is striking that
  • the feelings which Hannah had in which she expressed in bitterness of Spirit and depth of feeling to God, involved a man child, involved the matter of a son, and involved, dear brethren, what was to be for God.

• I believe that kind of prayer is needed amongst us, and not only bearing on those who are young, although I trust the Lord will give me liberty tonight to appeal to the beloved young ones amongst us, because you know, dear young people, we need you.

• The beloved saints need every single one of you, dear young boys and girls.

• And I would say, beloved brethren, there are no age limits on the material that God would bring forward to have a living and vital place in the assembly and for the encouragement of the brethren. I will relate a very simple but real incident.

There was a young boy of about nine years of age, one of whose parents had known something of the feelings of Hannah, knew something of what it was to be with God.

• He knew what it was to have his sins forgiven. He had come into personal contact with Jesus, and despite his youthfulness of years had known what it was to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• So, moved in his affections towards the appeal of love of his Saviour to remember Him in the time of his absence, he expressed his feelings to the brethren.

• The brethren were very happy to hear it, but they said, “Now, don’t you think you are just a little too young? Don’t you think you should just think the matter over, and maybe in a year or two we will take it up again?”.
  • “Well”, he said, “I would be very happy to do that brethren, if that is what you feel is right but if the Lord comes before the two years are up, will you tell Him that I asked to remember Him in the time of His rejection?”.

• Dear brethren, these are words to our hearts, that we cannot put any limit on the depth of feelings and affection that our beloved young people have for Jesus.

• Let us be untrammeled by what may be traditional amongst us, and let us get into the current of what the Spirit of God is doing, what the love of Jesus is producing in the hearts of the young amongst us,
  • so that there may be introduced into our localities the freshness of young life that must find expression in the Assembly.

• These things challenge our hearts too, dear young people, as to whether we are ready to respond in the full affection of our hearts to the appeal of the love of Jesus, as He says, typically, as the true Joseph,
  • “Only bear a remembrance with thee of me when it goes well with thee”. Genesis 40: 14.

So, returning to the feelings of Hannah, she had in mind not only what was to be for her own affection, but Hannah had in mind what was to be for God.She says,

• She says, “I will give him to Jehovah all the days of his life”.

• She is praying for something that is to be for God.

• And, dear brethren, let us know what it is to have our living part in praying for this, because
  • we may speak of the young amongst us growing cold: we may speak to one another with much shaking of our heads as to why such and one has not fulfilled the early promise of his or her life,

• but dear brethren, do we know what it is to get into the presence of God on our knees, with anguish of Spirit and depth of feelings, and ask Him to come in and to bring about His own results, by the Spirit, in the affections of our beloved young people?

• Hannah was equal to it. The priest did not understand it, but Hannah was real. The priest said certain things to her, but Hannah had an objective in her heart, and it was the matter of a man child that was to be for God.

• So that at the close of the chapter she says,
  • “I am the woman that stood by these here to pray to Jehovah. For this boy I prayed: and Jehovah has granted me my petition which I ask of Him. And also I have lent him to Jehovah”.

• Oh, you may say but Hannah, you said you were going to give him to Jehovah, but now you say you are going to lend him!

• Oh, yes, Hannah says, I am going to lend him, because while he has been given as a result of my prayer and exercise before God, I am going to continue the care and feelings that are needed,
  • that what is found here in youthful affection, typically, for Christ: what is found here in the greenness and attractiveness of youth for God, may be maintained.

• So, she says, I am going to lend him but I am going to retain the right to care for him. And, beloved brethren, that is what we need. That is what those of us who are younger need.

• I would speak to my beloved older brethren, that is what we need of you, dear brethren, the kind of care that experience with God can give us, so that we might be able, as cherished and preserved of the saints, to move forward with the testimony,
  • that should the Lord tarry a little longer, there might be that produced in all our hearts, which will develop into maturity,

• to preserve what might even at that time becoming forward in the freshness and wondrous greenness that marks the youthfulness of affection for Christ.

These things, dear brethren, are what we need. These are things perhaps, that we do not think much of.

• We may say, so-and-so is breaking bread, but that is not the end to he reached, it is just the beginning.

• What we need is that every one of us who may be a little older and a little more mature in the things of God, should enfold the dear young people in our affections so that they may be nurtured.

• The kind of feelings, the kind of affection, the kind of manhood according to God that is found in youthful affection amongst us, needs to be cherished, needs to be cared for, needs to be brought to full growth.

• I believe we require help in relation to this most important matter. We should know what it is to get into the presence of God in the spirit of prayer, and know what it is to pray with prayer,
  • and, might I say, dear brethren, to know a little more of what it is to weep in regard of what is found amongst us.

• The matter of the tears of those that have continued in the testimony might afford a subject all by itself;
  • the tears of the Lord Jesus, the tears of Paul, the tears of Timothy, yea, I would say, the tears of our parents and our grandparents and the unseen tears of the saints of God in relation to us!

• I believe the Spirit of God would encourage us that there might be more wealth amongst us in the way of weeping in relation to the testimony.

• Not at all in the spirit of what is hopeless, but the expression in the presence of God of feelings in relation to the increase and the advance amongst us of divine interests.

Now I move on to Daniel 6, because I believe that there we have the setting out of what many of our beloved brethren are suffering under now. There it is the pressure that is brought to bear from the outside.

• No doubt all the brethren here are cognizant of the exercise and the real pressure that many of the beloved saints of God are undergoing, and may have undergone in relation to exclusion from employment,
  • and other kinds of pressures too by way of unholy associations that would prey upon the people of God and bring in hindrance to the outgoing of our affections to God Himself.

• I think we need to understand that the prime objective of Satan, from the very beginning and proceeding right up to tonight, is that God should be deprived of His portion amongst His people.

• So that he moved in relation to Daniel, a man, who as to his movements among men was faultless. They looked on Daniel and they said, “We shall not find any pretext against this Daniel”.

• What a word to us, dear brethren! Can men say this of us? Are we marked by piety, by bringing God into our circumstances and being governed by the Spirit in all our movements, knowing what it is in real liberty, dear brethren, to commune with the Spirit as indwelling us?

• Getting step by step and moment by moment instructions from the Spirit Himself in regard to the very smallest detail of our histories in this scene? Do we all know something of this?

• Do we all know what it is in real liberty to speak to the Spirit? I am not speaking at the moment, dear brethren, of the liberty which we should have in worshipping the Spirit, One who as to His person is God Himself and as such an unqualified Object of the worship of our hearts, but
  • One too, Who as indwelling us is to be spoken to; we, to know His speaking, we to know His guidance, but the Spirit for His part, to know the liberty of our response, to know the liberty of our speaking to Him in regard to our matters.

• Do we bring the Spirit into it, or do we or do we carve up our lives into certain areas into which we do not bring the Spirit?

• Dear brethren, I know no sphere of our lives, in any sense at all, as publicly in the assembly or in our personal and individual histories, into which the Spirit of God should not have access, and liberty of movement, and no phase of our life, dear brethren, as to which we should not have liberty to speak to the Spirit.

• So Daniel is a man who is faultless. There is nothing public that can be taken account of in any sense that can be spoken of in a derogatory way. They say, “We shall not find any pretext against this Daniel, unless we find [it] against him touching the law of his God”.

• What is to be supreme with us, dear brethren, is the matter of the law of our God.

• However you may view it, as to what may be presented to us by the Father, or by the Son, or by the Spirit, the law of our God is what is to govern us.

• So they say, we will introduce something by which we can ensnare this man as touching the law of his God. They go to the King, and the matter becomes legal, that is, it is written in the constitution of the country.

• That is what we find in many parts, dear brethren, what the beloved saints in New York and throughout the United States and elsewhere are finding, but the blessed God Himself, in some instances, has come in and made a door of escape for His people.

• When these things are written into the law of the land, we are faced with a reality. Daniel was faced with it,
  • but it says, “and when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and, his windows being opened in his upper chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled on his knees three times a day, a prayed and give thanks before his God, as he did aforetime”.

• Oh, you say, that was a real emergency! Well, maybe it was, but I would like all to take note that it says,
  • “he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed … before God, as he did aforetime”.

• What I am trying to stress, dear brethren, is this, that prayer is not to come into play solely in the time of emergency, but Daniel has recourse, as he always did, into the presence of his God in relation to matters.

• So that amongst the nations we find that at a time of crises there is a day of prayer proclaimed, but that is not what is suggested in Daniel, he has recourse to his knees in the presence of God as he always did.

• A great matter of perseverance and what is customary. I don’t mean what is common or becomes common to us in that sense, but the real genuineness of constant resorting into the presence of God in regard of what touches the divine interest.

• So that his windows are opened towards Jerusalem. You say, Daniel, this matter is going to touch you personally, and he says, Yes, but I have carried it into the presence of my God as touching the whole Assembly.

• I believe, dear brethren, this kind of prayer is needed amongst us – the ability, in the power of the Spirit, to carry into the presence of God, not only our personal exercises, but our desire with genuineness of feeling, that God may come in in relation to the whole universal position.

• So that Daniel was in the presence of God, and Jerusalem in his affections. The Psalmist could say,
  • “pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee”, Psalm 122: 6.

• We need to have the good of the saints in our affections, and to know what it is to plead in prayer before God for what needs to come in by way of divine resources, but standing directly in relation to the Assembly so that God does come in.

• So while Daniel is prepared to go through the testing with God, he is prepared, typically, to lay down his life for the brethren. Oh, do we love one another, dear brethren, enough to lay down our lives?

• I believe as we appreciate and have a greater estimation in our affections of the work of God amongst the saints, there will be a greater readiness with us to lay down our lives for the brethren.

• If any one of us wants to know how to regard the saints, I would commend the 16th chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans. What does Paul say as to some?
  • “In Christ before me”, verse 7.

• We may say, this brother and that brother does not know too much about the truth, and no doubt the ones of whom Paul spoke certainly did not know as much as Paul, but he could say,
  • “who were also in Christ before me”.

• He would say, when I was persecuting the saints of God, these men had surrendered to the claims of Jesus. These things, dear brethren, should mark our outlook in regard to one another.

• So, of another, before Paul preached there
  • he could say, “who is [the] first-fruits of Asia for Christ”, verse 5.

• Do we know anything of what it is to value one another in relation to the work of God?

• It is not a question of praising one another, it is a matter or, by the Spirit, having the power, having the discernment, and having the feelings, to apprehend the work of God in all its preciousness, and in all its peculiar luster and glory.

Well, now I close in the reference to Acts 9, because it alludes to the great matter of restoration and recovery.

• Here we have a person who was marked, no doubt, by much activity amongst the saints, and no doubt much that she did was good.

• We may not have had a high regard of Dorcas, and I believe she is, perhaps, entitled to a greater place in our estimation than she may have had.

• She did many things in relation to the practical needs of the brethren. Thank God for everyone of us that in any sense seeks to minister to the practical needs and comfort of the saints.

• However, sickness came in and she dies, and the widows washed her and placed the body in the upper room. But they knew that Peter was nearby and they sent to him.

• The situation was beyond them, they did not know what to do with the dead condition amongst them. Here is the body, and here are all the body coats, so they send for Peter, and Peter comes. And what a sight meets him!

• The saints will understand that I am in no way criticizing the brethren, because the saints have a real place in my affections through the work of the Spirit, but I believe the conditions that Peter met when he came to the house, have been reproduced all too often amongst us!

• When a condition of deadness has come in, we adopt this attitude that was found amongst the widows; we stand and wring our hands, and reminisce about the better days and say, “While she used to be this, you know, it is a pity what has come in, and we are so sorry about the whole thing”. We weep, and wax sentimental in relation to it.

• But Peter comes in and he puts them all out. The brethren will understand that these tears are not the kind of tears that Paul shed or that Timothy shed, or that the blessed Lord Jesus in all the uniqueness and glory of His Person as Man, shed,
  • but these are the kind of tears that often are found amongst us as a result of sheer inability to being in the power that will revive, from the deadness that might be amongst us.

• Peter puts them all out, and kneeling down, he prays. That is what we need, dear brethren.

• If there are dead conditions amongst us, if there are persons that are giving us concern, as we say, as to their lack of vitality in divine things, and amongst the saints, have we merely lamented over it? Have we merely spoken sentimentally to one another about it?

• Or have we known what it is to kneel down in the presence of God and bring in the power of Heaven in relation to it because that alone will do.

• We don’t want dead bodies amongst us, we want living persons, we want vitality, we want life. We want old life as well as young, because some who are older have grown cold, and the brethren in this very city are carrying them in affection in their hearts.

• They are carrying exercises and burdens as regards some who have grown cold, and some that have become indifferent, and some that have moved out of the path of the testimony.

• I would encourage all our hearts, dear brethren, to know what it is to get into the presence of God on our knees and bring in the power that can alone bring in revival, and the resuscitation of life according to God, amongst us. So Peter presented her living to the saints.

I would just leave these impressions, feebly expressed, dear brethren, but trusting that the Spirit of God in all the power and all the ability that He has – speaking reverently – to make these things good to us,

• might really stimulate all our hearts into the exercise of prayer, to know what it is to pray with all perseverance and supplication, and to pray with prayer in the Spirit,
  • so that conditions of greenness, and freshness, and life, according to God, might be introduced and maintained amongst us, dear brethren, in view of the end.

• I believe the Lord has in mind, and every effort of the Spirit of God is to the end, that when the Lord comes for us there should be fine, in a supreme way amongst the saints, conditions of life to welcome Him.

Well, may God bless the word to every one of our hearts, for His name's sake!