Co-Laboring With God
God wants to work with His children to accomplish His will, but He needs their prayer and partnership to do so.
Watchman Nee emphasizes the importance of prayer in co-laboring with God, explaining that while God has a will, He desires His children to pray in alignment with it. He highlights that God's work will not be executed independently without the prayers of believers expressing their unity with Him. Nee illustrates this with the example of a judge who would not avenge a widow without her persistent cries, paralleling it to how God awaits the prayers of His people to act against the devil. The sermon underscores that believers have the authority to accuse Satan based on their persecution, which leads to his ultimate defeat. Ultimately, God delights in His people partnering with Him through prayer.
Text
God has a will. Yet He wants man to pray according to His will. When man does this, He will immediately accomplish the work that His will has ordained. If there is no prayer from His children expressing their oneness with Him in His work, no matter what His will may be, He will not execute it independently. God's goal is to remove the work of the devil, and surely His will is to avenge the believers. But God is waiting for His children to pray. As the judge would not have avenged the widow without her crying out to him, in the same way, without the Satan-accusing prayer of the believers, God will not avenge them. We do not know why, but we do know that God is pleased to see His people working with Him.
However, there must be a basis to our accusing.
The ones who are persecuted by Satan are the believers. Hence, the believers can accuse him before God based on Satan's treatment of them. In this way, he will receive his deathblow.
Sermon Outline
- God's Will and Prayer
- Prayer and God's Work
- The Basis of Prayer
- The Result of Prayer
- God will not execute His will independently
- Prayer is necessary for God's work to be accomplished
- Satan will receive his deathblow
- God's work will be accomplished
Key Quotes
“If there is no prayer from His children expressing their oneness with Him in His work, no matter what His will may be, He will not execute it independently.” — Watchman Nee
Application Points
- We should pray according to God's will and express our oneness with Him in His work.
- Our prayer against Satan should be based on his treatment of believers, who are persecuted by him.
- Prayer is necessary for God's work to be accomplished, and we should not assume that God will execute His will independently.