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Life Practices – Exercising Our Spirit to Pray with The Word

Higher Ground | Day 10

EXERCISING OUR SPIRIT TO PRAY WITH THE WORD

John 6:63 – It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Matt. 4:4 – But He answered and said, It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.”
Jer. 15:16 – Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Jehovah, God of hosts.

John 6:63 says, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The word has to be spirit in order to be life to us. Therefore, we must know how to transfer the word we have understood into the Spirit. If we come to the Bible only by exercising our eyes and mind to understand it, the word is still only the word. The way to transfer the word into the Spirit is by exercising our spirit to pray.

The right way to receive the word is to take it as the breath of life from God (2 Tim. 3:16). This is the life food by which man lives, not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). This is food for the spirit, so we have to exercise our spirit to take it. To receive food for our physical body, we have to exercise our mouth, but to receive spiritual food for our spirit, we have to exercise our spirit. Whenever we come to the word, we need to realize that it is spiritual food. We must exercise our spirit to eat it, not merely to know it. We should forget about knowing and simply eat Christ. This word is the written word of the living Word. It is the expression, the revelation, of the living Word, who is Christ. He is our food, our bread of life, so whenever we come to the Bible, we come to food, not for the body but for the spirit, so we must use our spirit to take it. This is clear to us, but we have to practice to receive the word in this way, not merely to read the Bible for knowledge but to read it for feeding on it. (Enjoying Christ as the Word and the Spirit through Prayer, pp. 31-33)

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Higher Ground: Speaking Genuinely from the Heart and Needing to Confess Our Sins

In this 21 minute podcast, brother Tom shares with us how to come to the Lord in a genuine way.  This podcast compliments our last morning revival concerning prayer. We recommend you listen to this heartfelt speaking by your self.

This podcast is from the 2015 National College Training. You can find many other wonderful podcasts at the AgeTurners website.

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Life Practices – Prayer

Higher Ground | Day 9

PRAYER

John 4:24 – God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.
Heb. 10:19 – Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus.

Prayer is for contacting God and having fellowship with Him. The emphasis here is not on asking God concerning different matters. Prayer is a means and a way of fellowship. Fellowship with God must be by prayer and through prayer. The real meaning of prayer is to contact God and absorb Him.

First, prayer that contacts God consists of words spoken genuinely from the heart. We must pray according to our inward feeling. We should not exercise our mind like a student taking an exam. Neither should we focus on the wording of prayer as if we are writing an essay. Such prayers are not very genuine; they are rather pretentious. When we come before God to pray, we should not be pretentious. We should speak what we feel within. When we are angry, we should voice our anger before God. When we are happy, we should voice our happiness before God. When we are sad, we should voice our sadness before God. When we are under pressure, we should speak of this pressure before God. When we sense that we are sinful, we should confess it before God. We should speak what we feel within, speaking genuine words from our heart.

When we come before God without being pretentious or memorizing the things we need to pray for and we simply place ourselves before Him and let the Holy Spirit shine in us, He causes us to sense and see certain sins or mistakes that we have committed. At that time, we should confess the sin according to this sense. We should confess only as much as we sense. We do not need to take care of what we have not sensed. While confessing, we need to receive the precious blood, rely on the blood, and apply the effectiveness of the blood. If we continue praying in this way, we can be assured that we will touch God’s presence and contact Him. (Lessons for New Believers, pp. 324-325, 328-329)

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Higher Ground: Week 2 Ministry Reading – Early Rising

Did you enjoy our dear Lord Jesus in Week (1)? Spend time this week (2) to practice opening your heart to Him again every day. Nothing is more worthwhile than this!  Love Him and give every aspect of your life to Christ. 

The Week 2 Ministry Reading is EARLY RISING by Watchman Nee. Please read the whole chapter but give special attention to  Roman Numeral III. WHAT TO DO IN THE EARLY MORNING.

  • You can read it online for free at:
    www.ministrybooks.org
  • From the menu choose “Books A-Z”.
  • Then, under the letter “C”, scroll down to find:
  • Collected Works of Watchman Nee (Set 3) Vol. 48: Messages for Building Up New Believers (1)
  • Select it and then read chapter 11: Early Rising.
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Life Practices – Calling on the name of the Lord

Higher Ground | Day 8

CALLING ON THE NAME OF THE LORD

Romans 10:12-13 – For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; 13 for “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If we call on a person who is real, true, and living, he will come to us. Is Jesus real today? Is Jesus living? Surely He is. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” He comes to us with all His riches….Romans 10 does not say that the Lord is rich unto all that believe on Him, worship Him, meditate on Him, or pray to Him. It says that the Lord is rich to all who call upon Him (v. 12). Whosoever calls upon His name shall be saved (Rom. 10:12–13)…Do not consider that being saved is such a simple thing. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were saved, but we also need to be saved throughout our Christian life. To be saved is not merely to be delivered from hell, to be rescued from God’s eternal judgment. That is too negative. To be saved is to get into the full enjoyment of all the riches of Christ. Christ is so rich. He is everything to us. We can enter into the enjoyment of all the riches of Christ by calling on His name—“O Lord Jesus.”

If we would open up our mouth, deep from our heart and with our spirit, to call “Lord Jesus,” He would get into us. This is the way to take Christ into us, the vessels. He is the content, and we are the containers. The way for us, the containers, to take Him in as the content is to exercise our mouth to call upon His name: “O Lord Jesus!” In this way all the bottles, the vessels will be filled up with Christ not only as their salvation but also as all that He is in His unsearchable riches. (The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ, pp. 30–31, 33)

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Life Practices – Being Filled by Repenting and Confessing

Higher Ground | Day 7

BEING FILLED BY REPENTING AND CONFESSING

Acts 3:19 – Repent therefore and turn, that your sins may be wiped away.
Acts 24:16 – Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.
Eph. 5:18 – Do not be drunk with wine…but be filled in spirit.

The heart is the gateway—the entrance and exit—of the spirit. Our heart must be open to the Lord in order for Him to come into our spirit. How can we open our heart? We must repent and continue to repent in order to exercise our conscience. Not only did we need to repent at the time we heard the gospel, but even after we are saved we have to repent continually. In the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord demands that we repent (2:5, 16; 3:3, 19). To repent is to turn our mind, which is one door of the gateway of our heart. When we turn our mind and our mind is open, our confession follows. This is the exercise and opening of the conscience. Then when we have true repentance and real confession, our emotion and will follow to make a decision for the Lord. In this way, the whole heart is exercised and open, and the Lord comes in through our heart into our spirit. (Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, p. 119)

How much the Spirit can fill you within depends on how much room you give Him. The more room you give Him, the more He fills you. Similarly, the amount of air that fills a bottle depends on how much space there is in the bottle. If half of the bottle is filled with soil, air can fill only half of the bottle. The more the soil is removed from the bottle, however, the more the air will fill it. In the same way, the more you remove the defilement of sin and the filthiness that is within you, the more the Holy Spirit will be able to fill you. As you empty out, the Spirit will fill you. When you have completely emptied yourself of all filthiness, then you will also be completely filled with the Spirit. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, pp. 124-125)

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Life Practices – A Time with the Lord in the Morning

Higher Ground | Day 6

A TIME WITH THE LORD IN THE MORNING

Psa. 90:14 – Satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness that we may give a ringing shout and rejoice all our days.
Lam. 3:22-23 – It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, for His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

In the Bible we find God’s servants rising up early in the morning. Let us consider their examples: Abraham (Gen. 19:27; 21:14; 22:3), Jacob (Gen. 28:18), Moses (Exo. 8:20; 9:13; 24:4; 34:4), Joshua (Josh. 3:1; 6:12; 7:16; 8:10), Gideon (Judg. 6:38), Hannah (1 Sam. 1:19), Samuel (1 Sam. 15:12), David (1 Sam. 17:20), Job (Job 1:5), Mary (Luke 24:22; Mark 16:9; John 20:1), [and] the apostles (Acts 5:21). These many verses tell us that God’s servants had the habit of dealing with God early in the morning. Every one of them had the habit of waking early in the morning and fellowshipping with God early in the morning. They rose up early in the morning to do many things related to God’s business. They also rose up early in the morning to consecrate themselves. Although there is no commandment in the Bible that tells
us to get up early, there are sufficient examples in the Bible to show us that all faithful servants of God rise up early. Even the Lord Jesus Himself rose up early. He rose up very early in the morning, while it was still night, and went away to a deserted place to pray (Mark 1:35). When He wanted to appoint the twelve apostles, He called them to Himself early in the morning (Luke 6:13). If the Lord had to rise up early to do these things, how much more do we need to rise up early?

Any brother or sister who wants to follow the Lord must never think that there is little difference in rising up an hour early. Early rising brings in great blessing. We hope that you will not miss the blessing of early rising at the start of your Christian life. (Messages for Building Up New Believers, pp. 167-168)

 

 

 

 

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Hidden Life – Having Set Times of Prayer

Higher Ground | Day 5

HAVING SET TIMES OF PRAYER

Col. 4:2 – Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.
Psa 55:17 – Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

;This indicates that we need to be watchful, on the alert, for this prayer life. We need to be on guard lest we be robbed of time that should be devoted to prayer. If we do not watch unto our prayer life, we shall lose time. Here and there throughout the day, our time will be wasted. We may lose time because our time is neither scheduled nor controlled. When we are at work, our time may be closely regulated. But when it comes to prayer, many do not schedule their time. As a result, much time which could be devoted to prayer is lost. Although you may be very busy, do not use this as an excuse for not praying. If you place a high value on your prayer life, you will watch unto it and arrange time for it. No matter how busy you may be, you will still have time to pray. According to the examples in the Bible, it is better to have more than one time set aside for prayer daily. For example, Daniel prayed three times a day. Also the psalmist spoke of praying in the morning, at noon, and in the evening (Psa. 55:17). If we build up the habit of praying at regular times every day, great blessing will be brought in. This blessing will affect not only our personal lives, but also the church, our neighborhood, and even our nation. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 553-554)

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Hidden Life – Rooted in Christ

Higher Ground | Day 4

ROOTED IN CHRIST

Col. 2:6–7 – As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, 7 walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

In the morning many believers spend time with the Lord. However, even though they spend a certain amount of time with Him, they may not absorb much of His riches. The reason is that they are in too much of a hurry. If we would absorb the riches of Christ into us as our nourishment, we should not be rushed. We cannot absorb anything if we are in a hurry.

If we would absorb the riches of Christ as the soil, we need to have tender, new roots. Do not let yourself get old, but be fresh and renewed day by day. Pray to the Lord, “Lord, I want my consecration to be fresh, and I want to open to You anew. I want my roots to be tender that I may absorb Your riches. Lord, don’t let my roots get old.” If our roots are tender and new to absorb the riches of Christ, we shall grow automatically with the riches we assimilate. This is to enjoy Christ and to experience Him subjectively daily and hourly. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 486– 487)

Being rooted is a matter of life. For a plant to be rooted in the soil involves an organic process. Apart from such a process, no plant can become rooted. The deeper a plant’s roots extend into the earth, the more far-reaching is the organic process. As a plant’s root system develops, the life of the plant spreads and develops. To be rooted in Christ is to experience such a development, spreading, and activity of life. (Ibid, pp. 404–405)

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Hidden Life – A Hidden Life

Higher Ground | Day 3

A HIDDEN LIFE

Instructions:

Pray | 2-3 minutes
Open your heart to the Lord. Tell Him
you love Him. Make the verse your
prayer.

Read | 5 minutes
Prayerfully read the verses and
paragraphs.

Write | 5 minutes
Write down what you appreciate or any
questions you have.

Matt. 13:3b, 5-6 – Behold, the sower went out to sow…And [other seed] fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much earth, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered.

What is a root? It is growth that occurs beneath the soil. What are the leaves? They are growth that occur above the soil. In other words, roots are the hidden life, whereas leaves are the manifest life. The trouble with many Christians is that, while there is much apparent life, there is very little secret life. In other words, there is the lack of a hidden life. How much of your life is hidden from view? How much is unknown to others? You stress outward works. Yes, good works are important; but apart from that manifest expression of your life, how much of your life remains hidden? If all your spiritual life is exposed, you do not have any root. Are all your virtues before God manifested before man, or is there something more that is unknown to man? If all your experiences are manifested, then all your growth is upward; there is no downward growth. If this is the case, you are a person who has only leaves without root, and you are on shallow ground…May God work in us so that we can take root downward. (Deep Calls unto Deep, pp. 2, 5)

Those who do not have any root before the Lord will be dried up in their life…Nothing can preserve you as much as a hidden life. If you see that a brother has fallen or failed, or has come into trouble, without asking anyone, you can surely say that prior to this trouble he lost his hidden life. He lost his hidden life during the previous weeks, months, or even years. Your spiritual life depends very much on your hidden life before God. If you cannot sustain a hidden life, you will be weak before the Lord. Therefore, you should realize the importance of the hidden life. (CWWN, vol. 11, “The Present Testimony (4),” pp. 834-835)

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Hidden Life – A Spiritual Time

Higher Ground | Day 2

A SPIRITUAL TIME

Instructions:

Pray | 2-3 minutes
Open your heart to the Lord. Tell Him
you love Him. Make the verse your
prayer.

Read | 5 minutes
Prayerfully read the verses and
paragraphs.

Write | 5 minutes
Write down what you appreciate or any
questions you have.

Eph. 6:17-18 – And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit… 18 By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit…
1 Cor 6:17 – But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

In verse 18 Paul says specifically that we are to pray in spirit. This refers to our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. It may be considered the mingled spirit-our spirit mingled with God’s Spirit. Whenever we are in our spirit, we are also in the Holy Spirit, for our spirit is one with the Lord. Therefore, Paul’s charge to pray in spirit implies that we must also pray in the Spirit of God, for these two spirits are mingled in us. In prayer, the main faculty we should use is our spirit. If our mind is overactive or if our emotion is not under control [e.g. we are too sad or too excited], we shall find it difficult to pray. When we pray, our mind should be at rest, and our emotion should be regulated, neither too hot nor too cold. According to my experience, I easily become distracted in prayer when my mind is preoccupied with other things. Likewise, when my emotion is not properly regulated, I find it difficult to utter something from my spirit in prayer. Furthermore, if we would pray at every time in spirit, our will must be strong. It may seem that prayer is easy, but actually it is difficult. It is very easy to talk or read, but it is not easy to pray. Hence, in order to pray in spirit, we need to be adjusted in our mind, balanced in our emotion, and exercised in our will. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 552-553)

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Hidden Life – A Private Time

Higher Ground | Day 1

Instructions:

pray | 2-3 minutes
Open your heart to the Lord. Tell Him
you love Him. Make the verse your
prayer.

Read | 5 minutes
Prayerfully read the verses and
paragraphs.

write | 5 minutes
Write down what you appreciate or any
questions you have.

Matt. 14:23 – And after He sent the crowds away, He went up to the mountain privately to pray. And when night fell, He was there alone.
Matt. 6:6 – But you, when you pray, enter into your private room, and shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.


We need to see and follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus. He did not remain in the issue of the great miracle that He performed. Instead, He went up to the mountain privately to pray. The word privately is very meaningful. This means He did not let the people
know that He was going to pray. Otherwise, they would have followed Him. He went away from them to be with the Father privately in prayer….We should learn from the Lord’s pattern here by exercising to be with Him on the mountain in prayer. His looking
up to heaven means that He had no trust in Himself. His going up to the mountain means that He wanted to be with the Father in prayer.

To pray with others is good, but often we need to pray by ourselves. When we pray with others, we cannot enjoy the Lord as deeply as when we pray to the Lord privately. Even the Lord Jesus told us that when we pray we should enter into our private room and shut our door and pray to the Father who sees in secret (Matt. 6:6). Then we have the sensation of how intimate He is to us and
how close we are to Him. We have to learn to leave the crowds, our family, our friends, and the saints in the church to go to a higher level on a “high mountain.” We have to go higher, far away from the earthly things on a lower level. We need to get to a higher level, separated from the crowd, to be with the Father privately and secretly to have intimate fellowship with Him. This is the significance of being on the mountain in prayer. (The God-Man Living, pp. 127-128)

Note: The materials we will be using for Morning Revival are adapted from the “Daily Bread” devotional produced by Christian Students at CSU (Fort Collins, CO).

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Higher Ground: Intro

21 Days of Exercising our spirit in small groups. Starting Monday May 11, 2020.

Access Daily Morning Revivals Here

 Access the Gospel of Luke Reading Schedule Here

  Access the Higher Ground Audio and Video Here

Key Verses

Matthew 18:20  For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.

John 13:34  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Acts 2:17-18  And it shall be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream things in dreams; And indeed upon My slaves, both men and women, I will pour out of My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.

2 Corinthians 3:18  But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

John 4:24  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

1 Timothy 4:7-8  and exercise yourself unto godliness. For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come.

Morning Revival Bible Reading Ministry Reading Care in the groups
  • Every day before 8:30 AM
  • Touch the Lord
  • Personally
  • Loving the Lord
  • Posted online every night
  • Gospel of Luke
  • Every day
  • Follow your own schedule
  • or Follow the posted schedule
  • On your own or with group
  • Flexible Schedule
  • New material each week
  • Recommended: Read with group
  • Exercise your spirit together
  • Listen to one another
  • Encourage everyone to participate
  • Share with one another
  • Pray and Sing together

You can also practice having morning revival together in your group. We recommend trying it together twice per week.

For week (1) of the ministry reading, we’ll read:
Basic Elements of the Christian Life Volume 1 – The key to Experiencing Christ – the Human Spirit. Download it here: https://biblesforamerica.org/books/

The week (2) ministry reading is EARLY RISING

The week (3) ministry reading is NUMBERING OUR DAYS

Morning Revival Material

Will be posted here on this site each day. Come back every night to pick it up! We’ll even surprise you with podcasts and videos to help you with your Higher Ground Training!

Note: The material we are using is adapted from the “Daily Bread” devotional produced by Christian Students at CSU (Fort Collins, CO).

Instructions:

pray | 2-3 minutes
Open your heart to the Lord. Tell Him
you love Him. Make the verse your
prayer.

Read | 5 minutes
Prayerfully read the verses and
paragraphs.

write | 5 minutes
Write down what you appreciate or any
questions you have.

Bible Reading Schedule for the gospel of Luke.

Downloadable and Printable: Higher-Ground-Gospel-of-Luke-Reading-Schedule

05/11/20
Luke 1:1 – 1:25

05/12/20
Luke 1:26 – 1:80

05/13/20
Luke 2:1 – 2:39

05/14/20
Luke 2:40 – 3:38

05/15/20
Luke 4:1 – 4:44

05/16/20
Luke 5:1 – 6:38

05/17/20
Luke 6:39 – 7:50

05/18/20
Luke 8:1 – 8:56

05/19/20
Luke 9:1 – 9:62

05/20/20
Luke 10:1 – 10:37

05/21/20
Luke 10:38 – 11:54

05/22/20
Luke 12:1 – 12:59

05/23/20
Luke 13:1 – 14:14

05/24/20
Luke 14:15 – 15:22

05/25/20
Luke 15:23 – 16:31

05/26/20
Luke 17:1 – 18:8

05/27/20
Luke 18:9 – 19:27

05/28/20
Luke 19:28 – 20:44

05/29/20
Luke 20:45 – 22:38

05/30/20
Luke 22:39 – 23:43

05/31/20
Luke 23:44 – 24:53