Am I fulfilling this ministry of the interior? There is no snare or any danger of infatuation or pride in intercession, it is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit whereby the Father is glorified.

Am I allowing my spiritual life to be frittered away, or am I bringing it all to one centre - the Atonement of my Lord? Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest in my life? If the one central point, the great exerting influence in my life is the Atonement of the Lord, then every phase of my life will bear fruit for Him.

I must take time to realize what is the central point of power. Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? "If ye abide in Me" - continue to act and think and work from that centre - "ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Am I abiding? Am I taking time to abide? What is the greatest factor of power in my life? Is it work, service, sacrifice for others, or trying to work for God? The thing that ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the Atonement of the Lord.

It is not the thing we spend the most time on that moulds us most; the greatest element is the thing that exerts most power. We must determine to be limited and concentrate our affinities.

"Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do." The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and his apparently free choices are God's fore-ordained decrees. Mysterious? Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes, but a glorious truth to a saint.

The Lord Jesus took this very approach with God when He said, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me” (John 17:24). Joshua used it during the moment of his greatest victory, when he lifted his spear toward the setting sun and cried aloud, “Sun, stand still” (Joshua 10:12). Elijah employed it when he stopped the rain from heaven and started it again after three and a half years. Martin Luther followed it when, kneeling by his dying colleague, Philipp Melanchthon, he forbid death to take its victim.

This is a wonderful relationship that God invites us to enter. We are certainly familiar with passages of Scripture like the one that follows the above verse: “My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts” (Isaiah 45:12). But knowing that God invites us to command Him to act reveals a surprising change in our normal relationship!

What a distinction there is between this attitude and the hesitancy and uncertainty of our prayers of unbelief, to which we have become so accustomed! The constant repetition of our prayers has also caused them to lose their sharp cutting edge.

Think how often Jesus, during His earthly ministry, put others in a position to command Him. “As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho,” Jesus stopped and responded to two blind men who had called out to Him. “What do you want me to do for you?” (Matthew 20:29, 32). It was as though He said, “I am yours to command.”

Could we ever forget how Jesus yielded the key to His resources to the Greek woman from Syrian Phoenicia because of her reply to Him? In effect, He told her to help herself to all that she needed. (Mark 7:24–30.)

What human mind can fully realize the total significance of the lofty position to which God lovingly raises His little children? He seems to be saying, “All my resources are at your command.” “And I will do whatever you ask in my name” (John 14:13). F. B. MEYER

Say to this mountain, “Go, Be cast into the sea”; And doubt not in your heart That it will be to thee. It will be done, doubt not His Word, Challenge your mountain in the Lord!

Claim your redemption right, Purchased by precious blood; The Trinity unite To make it true and good. It will be done, obey the Word, Challenge your mountain in the Lord!

Self, sickness, sorrow, sin, The Lord did meet that day On His beloved One, And you are freed away. It has been done, rest on His Word, Challenge your mountain in the Lord!

Surround the rival’s wall With silent prayer, then raise— Before its ramparts fall— The victor’s shout of praise. It will be done, faith rests assured, Challenge your mountain in the Lord!

The massive gates of brass, The bars of iron yield, To let the faithful pass, Conquerors in every field. It will be done, the foe ignored, Challenge your mountain in the Lord!

Take then the faith of God, Free from the taint of doubt; The miracle-working rod That casts all reasoning out. It will be done, stand on the Word, Challenge your mountain in the Lord!

Do we pray for His glory?

This is the privilege and possibility for every man who can speak to God “in His Name.”

In the Lone Star Mission at Ongole, India, a faithful few had held on believingly and courageously year after year. Now the mission was about to be abandoned. The work had apparently failed; money had failed. The only hope now was God.

Dr. Jowett and his wife took with them that famous old Hindu woman, Julia, nearly one hundred years of age, and ascended the hills above Ongole to ask God to save the Lone Star Mission and the lost souls of India. The old Hindu saint mingled her tears with her description of the most important and most thrilling moment of her life—that memorable sunrise meeting on “Prayer Meeting Hill,” as she rehearsed the story one night in Nellore, India, to Dr. Cortland Myers.

“They all prayed, and they all believed! They talked and then they prayed again! They wrestled before heaven’s throne in the face of a heathen world, like Elijah on Carmel. At last the day dawned. Just as the sun rose above the horizon, Dr. Jowett arose out of darkness and seemed to see a great light. He lifted his hand heavenward and turned his tear-stained face toward the great Heart of Love. He declared that his vision saw the cactus field below transformed into a church and mission buildings!

“His faith grasped and gripped the great fact! He claimed the promise and challenged God to answer a prayer that was entirely for His own glory and the salvation of men!

The money came immediately, and clearly from God’s hand!

The man—God’s choice, came immediately! Clearly it was of God that Dr. Clough was called to put new life and hope into the almost abandoned mission.

Today on that very cactus field stands the Christian church with the largest membership of any church on earth—20,000 members! If it had not been divided by necessity there would now be 50,000 members—the greatest miracle of the modern missionary world.

On that well-nigh abandoned field, Dr. Clough baptized 10,000 persons in one year; 2,222 in one day!

Prayer Meeting Hill moved the throne of God, and made the world to tremble! The battlements of heaven must have been crowded to watch these many workings of a prayer for His glory!

It is not every believer who has yet learned to pray in Christ's name. To ask not only for His sake, but in His name, as authorized by Him, is a high order of prayer. We would not dare to ask for some things in that blessed name, for it would be a wretched profanation of it; but when the petition is so clearly right that we dare set the name of Jesus to it, then it must be granted.

Prayer is all the more sure to succeed because it is for the Father's glory through the Son. It glorifies His truth, His faithfulness, His power, His grace, The granting of prayer, when offered in the name of Jesus, reveals the Father's love to Him, and the honor which He has put upon Him. The glory of Jesus and of the Father are so wrapped up together that the grace which magnifies the one magnifies the other. The channel is made famous through the fullness of the fountain, and the fountain is honored through the channel by which it flows. If the answering of our prayers would dishonor our Lord, we would not pray; but since in this thing He is glorified, we will pray without ceasing in that dear name in which God and His people have a fellowship of delight.

Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!—Unto thee, O Lord , do I lift up my soul.—I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.—Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven.

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way . . . let us draw near.