Saint-Hippolyte (station) – 7th April 1847
Mr Barbezat
Lyon
Very dear Brother,
Your letter followed me to Montpéllier, where I was just about to leave; which has delayed my reply. I have been led somewhat as you have in regard to the Lord’s prayer. That it is perfect is quite certain, because it is the Lord that gave it. But where the Spirit is, there is liberty, and I do not see the smallest allusion made to this prayer in the rest of the New Testament, although we find there a good many prayers, and passages which indicate the subjects of prayers. It would be impossible that a man led by the Holy Spirit in the knowledge of his needs, and of the love of God, should limit himself to a prescribed form. But if one uses this prayer, and prays other prayers at the same time, that is either to say that it is imperfect, or else to say that it does not answer to the needs of the soul.
The fact is that giving directions (however perfect they may be) to persons who had not received the Holy Spirit, and the operation of the Holy Spirit in him in whom He dwells, are two things necessarily distinct; and one who does not understand that, does not know what the influence of the Holy Spirit is. The divine Spirit necessarily acts in the soul in a way that is proper to Him, and while revealing the glory of Jesus, puts the soul in an entirely new relationship with the Father and with our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord while living on earth could not put the soul into this relationship. Now prayer is the intimate expression of it; and this new relationship gives it an entirely new character. Hence the “groanings which cannot be uttered”[1], where He who searches the hearts finds no forms learnt and enforced in the memory, even though these forms might have been given by the Lord Himself. He finds the mind of the Spirit who intercedes for us according to God. If we want to use the Lord’s prayer as a supplement to the imperfections of our own sighings (while I quite admit that that may be done in good faith), this recital of His words without any heart, to fill up the gaps which are found in our hearts, seems to me a bad use of this precious instruction of the Lord. It is also ignoring the groanings of the Spirit.
But the difficulty lies in this and in this only, that we have to do with souls who, not being delivered by the Holy Spirit, do not understand the mind of Jesus, nor the fact that in His tenderness He could make provision for the disciples who had not yet received the Holy Spirit. This provision could not be applicable to them in the same way when the Holy Spirit had come down. That is the real difficulty. If they are worldly people, one may very well show them that they cannot use the Lord’s prayer, that they would not really dare to say that they are children of God, nor sincerely desire and call for the kingdom of Jesus to come, since they do not know whether that would be their eternal ruin. I was attacked once on this subject. At that time I gave some sermons on the Lord’s prayer to explain the contents of it. Since then I have heard no more of it. If they are children of God, we must act gently. Is there perhaps a true respect for the words of Jesus, though superstition may be mixed with it? We must attempt to enlighten them about deliverance by the Holy Spirit, and about His presence in those who have yielded themselves to Jesus. Their difficulties will fall away without any reasoning when they are delivered. It would be useless to talk to them about the remnant, they do not know what it is; but they will well understand what the thoughts of Jesus are, His tenderness towards His disciples while they were still fleshly and needing to be led like children – He Himself being on the earth to guide them on the earth. They will understand the difference between that, and the Spirit who gives us to know that we are in Him and He in us. On the earth, I say “who art in heaven”. Now I worship Him as being near to Him, or else I approach the cross as a sinner. But I say “Come, Lord Jesus”, rather than saying ”Thy kingdom come”, although both things are true. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is indeed our desire; but this word does not express the needs of a soul which is in conflict with the spiritual powers of wickedness in heavenly places,
and which is passing through this earth at a time when it is estranged from God. Such a soul takes its stand as a stranger to this world which has rejected Jesus. It finds its rest in the heavenly delights themselves, and its joy in being in conformity to Jesus up there. The Holy Spirit also greatly develops the desires and wishes of the Lord’s prayer, in a multitude of things of which He gives us the knowledge, and which could not be limited, for the confidence of sonship, to the Lord’s prayer. If we want the Lord’s prayer we ought to use nothing else, otherwise the use of it is only pure superstition. If it is our prayer, it is perfect, it is our whole prayer and our only prayer.
This much is evident. If someone says to me: ‘You shall say this, for you shall not be heard through much speaking’, and then I add ten times more words before or after, this seems to me hardly a real obedience. For the rest, to examine the contents of the Lord’s prayer, and fathom the thoughts of Jesus in it, is a very precious thing.
[1] see Rom 8: 26, 27
Note: This letter was originally published in ‘Baskets of Fragments’