For a heart to truly pray it must be humbled and in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ (II Chronicles 7:14). Each soul and each church and each nation has a great, great need of prayer, but if that is so then the need for humility of heart and subjection of heart is as great. But why is this subjection and humility of heart so rare? There are perhaps many reasons, but one of them is that people simply don’t know about it. A second reason is that people seem to think that prayer is an act of their own will, so they don’t seek to be humbled in order to pray. This has led to an appalling lack of prayer in personal lives, churches, and across the nation.
For a person to truly pray there will be a spiritual battle, but if there is no recognition of what true prayer is, this battle is unknown and ignored. Why must there be this spiritual battle? It is the battle between the flesh and the work of the Spirit in the heart. The flesh must be subdued in its love for self and its focus and trust in self for a true resting in Christ alone during prayer to occur. It would seem to be quite self-evident that a soul cannot trust in Christ alone during prayer if it is looking to itself for strength to pray. It would seem as self-evident that a proud heart that trusts in self to pray cannot go to a throne of grace to receive grace. But the proud heart of those who trust in their own works, their religion, and perhaps their own orthodoxy blind the people to their lack of humility and subjection of the heart and so they are blinded by their own efforts in prayer and religious things. How insidious it is when pride works to the deception of the heart so that even the prayers of people deceive them as to the true state of their souls.
What is the spiritual battle that a heart must go through to truly pray for His will to be done when the heart is in a fiery trial? The spiritual battle that a heart goes through is to die to what it wants and submit to the living God in what He desires. The great I-dol of self wants to determine what happens to it and it wants to please itself, but God is sovereign over all things at all times. The great battle in prayer is for the flesh to be humbled and subjected by grace and not the will itself (which is nothing more than self) so that it can and will pray from the depths of the soul for the will of God to done rather than the will of self to be done. In the modern day men seek the Lord in order that their will be done, but true prayer is to seek the Lord for His will to be done.
A heart is never finally and completely subjected until glory. A heart that thinks it is subjected will, when it sees that it is lower than it was or perhaps lower than others, begin to rise in pride. This is part of the spiritual battle as well. It is not just that the heart must be humbled and subjected in order to pray at first, but the battle goes on for the heart to remain subjected. Pride will rise in the heart at any point and the battle must go on from there. The evil one wants pride to rise and so he may whisper in the ear of the soul that is praying about how good the prayers are and to whisper in such a way that the soul will look to its own humility and admire itself. But a true humility and a true subjection is to bow before the living God in emptiness of self seeking grace to be humble and subjected and yet seeking it to stay that way and even go deeper into them.
What goes on in the subjected heart? What is the thinking process? For the soul to be in subjection to Christ the mind or thinking process must be in subjection to Him too. The mind not only must be subjected to Christ in terms of not thinking bad things, but it must think on Christ and look to Christ for how to think and what to think in order to pray. The mind can look to itself in order to pray, but what is that but looking to the flesh? The mind must bow in humble subjection and be turned from the things of self and the world in terms of motive, intent, and love in order that it may be able to pray for His glory, kingdom, and will.
What is the “feeling” process? The fleshly nature will rise up in its self-love and self-focus and strive to pray for self or at least pray for spiritual things with self as the focus. Self can “pray” for others and have it to be nothing more than self-interest. But the feelings will be turned and easily deceived. The feelings can drive the soul (at which point they are passions) and so the feelings of self are the focus. But the soul must be driven by truth and the feelings of the soul must follow the truth (which would then be the affections). The battle can only be won in this by Christ as He alone can tame the unruly heart. The whole soul must be in subjection to Christ in order to pray in truth and love. Wild feelings must be tamed as they can drive the soul rather than love for Christ. The mind must be in subjection or they will flit around here and there and not be bowed in living obedience to Christ. Prayer, then, becomes a battle and is not this easy thing of throwing out religious words. Prayer is a battle of the soul and for the reign and rule over the soul. Anyone who tries to truly pray will know very quickly that it is a real battle.
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