Chapter 4: Radical Prayer Life. We are commanded to adore and honor the Lord since we know that He is the Logos, the Savior, and the Leader. By honoring Him, we honor the Father. We are to do this continually, in every way throughout our whole lives. It's not something we do just on special days. Of course, the chosen race, the Jews, were right in saying, "Seven times a day I have praised you." Psalms 119:164. So the one who is intimate with God honors God and thanks Him for this knowledge of the way to live.
He does this at all times, when alone and when with fellow believers. He doesn't need a special place or selected temple. He doesn't wait for certain festivals or appointed days. He honors God during his whole life. A godly man is a good influence on the people around him. He inspires respect and reverence in his associates. Likewise, God guides the person who has uninterrupted fellowship with Him. The one who fellowships with God will grow better in every way: in his conduct, in his speech, and in his character.
He is confident that God is always beside him. He doesn't believe that God is confined to certain limited places. So he doesn't think that he can somehow escape God's sight and get away with doing wrong things. We should celebrate God throughout our entire lives, confident that He is always at our side. So we cultivate our fields praising God. We sail the sea singing hymns. In all our conversation, we conduct ourselves according to God's discipline. The one who truly knows God, then, is closely allied to God.
He is always both serious and cheerful. He is serious because his soul is bent toward God. He is cheerful because he constantly thinks of all the blessings that God has given us. So the one who is intimate with God is truly a kingly man. He is a sacred priest of God. Even the more advanced of the barbarians recognize the link between priesthood and rulership, for they promote their priestly caste to positions of royal power. Godly entertainment.
The one who is intimate with God never surrenders himself to the mobs that attend the theaters. Even in his dreams, he is pure from desire of the alluring pleasures that are spoken about, viewed, and practiced by the world. 1 John 2:15-17. He shows no interest in pleasures of sight or in other enjoyments such as expensive incense and perfumes, which bewitch the nostrils. He has no interest in fancy foods or a great variety of wines that ensnare the palate.
He has no use for elaborate, fragrant bouquets, which weaken the soul through senses. Instead, the one who is intimate with God offers God the first fruits of food, drink, and ointments. He makes this offering by recognizing God as a source of all enjoyable things, and he gives thanks for these gifts.
The one who is intimate with God rarely goes to banquets or parties unless he knows that the entertainment will be of a friendly and harmonious nature, for he's convinced that God knows and perceives all things, not just the words, but the thoughts also. In fact, our sense of hearing is not totally a physical thing, but one of mental perception. For the mind must interpret different sounds, but God doesn't have a physical body needing to hear audible sounds. He doesn't need senses, as the Stoics mistakenly think.
They foolishly say that God particularly needs hearing and sight, for he could never understand any other way. Unspoken communication with God. How can anyone say that our voices do not reach God, that they are rolled downward by the air? For the thoughts of these saints can penetrate not only the air, but the entire earth. The divine power sees through the whole soul with the speed of light. So our unheard desires speak to God, uttering their own kind of voice. Even our own conscience communicates these desires.
So what audible voice does God have to wait for? He knows the say before they are even born. He knows the future as though it had already taken place. Doesn't the light of power shine down to the very bottom of the whole soul? As the scripture says, "The lamp of knowledge searches the recesses." Proverbs 20:27. So one could say that God is all ears and all eyes. In general, an unworthy view of God maintains no holiness, whether in hymns, lectures, writings, or teachings.
Instead, it produces ideas and notions that are base and groveling. Therefore, to receive the praises of the crowds is really to receive condemnation, for the crowds are ignorant of the truth. Actually, then, our very desires and aspirations, the mind's impulses, are types of prayers. The one who is intimate with God prays for and requests the truly good things for his soul, but he also contributes his own efforts to acquire the practice of goodness.
He wants to actually be good rather than merely having good things. For this reason, it's essential that the ones who are intimate with God pray constantly, for they know God in truth. They have virtues suitable to God. They know what things are really good and what things to pray for in each individual situation. Of course, we realize it's absurd to pray to those who are not really gods as if they were actually gods. But it's similarly ridiculous to ask God for things that are not truly good.
In effect, we would be asking to receive evil things that simply masquerade as good. Nevertheless, there is such a thing as praying for the prevention of evil. However, this kind of prayer is never to be used to injure another person. Rather, the one who is intimate with God, in devotion to righteousness, may use this kind of prayer on behalf of those who are beyond feeling. To speak more boldly, prayer is conversation with God.
Even though we speak in silence, not opening our lips, inwardly we are crying out, and God continually hears all this inward conversation. So also, we raise our heads and lift our hands to heaven and set our feet in motion at the closing prayers when we meet. As we pray, we try, so to speak, to separate our bodies from the earth. We raise the soul to heaven, winged with yearnings for better things.
And so we drive the soul to the region of holiness, casting off the chains of the flesh, for we know quite well that the one who is intimate with God leaves behind the whole world, just as the Jews left Egypt behind. Above all, the godly man wants to be as near as possible to God. Some people assign specific hours for prayer, such as the third, sixth, and ninth hours. But the one who is intimate with God prays throughout the entire day, having continual fellowship with God through prayer.
When he attains to this fellowship, he leaves behind him all useless things of this world, for he has now reached the fullness of one who acts by love. But the purpose of dividing the day into three prayer times is understood by those who are familiar with the blessed triad of the holy dwellings. The heretics say prayer is unnecessary. At this point, I want to address the teachings of some of the heretics who say that prayer is unnecessary.
But the man of God does not listen to heretics, for the only true holy and righteous man is the one who knows God according to the rule of the church. Only this man has his verbal and unspoken prayers answered according to the will of God. Since God can do anything he wants, the man who is truly intimate with God receives all that he asks for, for God knows who among all mankind are worthy of good things and who are not, so he gives to each person what is suitable.
He doesn't give to those who don't deserve, even though they ask often, but he does give to those who are worthy. And even though God often gives good things without our asking, this doesn't mean that prayer is unnecessary. The person who truly knows God gives thanks to God and prays for the conversion of his neighbors. The Lord prayed in this way, giving thanks for the completion of his ministry and praying that as many as possible would be saved.
He prayed that people would be saved so that God would be glorified in their salvation, and he prayed that many would acknowledge God, who alone is good and who alone is Savior, through the son and from age to age. When a person believes he will receive from God, his faith is in itself a type of prayer. It is a prayer stored away. Since any occasion to converse with God is prayer, we should miss no opportunity to talk to God. God is not involuntarily good, in the way that a fire is involuntarily hot.
No, it is completely voluntary on God's part to give good things, whether or not he has been asked. No one is saved against his will, for man is not some inanimate object. Rather, we run to salvation voluntarily and of our own free choice. Man received the commandments so that he could choose for himself what things to do and what things to avoid. God does not do good because he has no other choice. Rather, his free choice blesses those who spontaneously turn to him.
The care that God gives us is not like the service that servants give to their masters. Instead, God bestows his care out of compassion for our weakness. So his care is like the care a shepherd gives to a sheep, or that a king gives to his subjects. And we must be obedient to our appointed leaders who are commissioned by God to direct us. Therefore, the people who actually render the freest and most kingly service on earth are the servants in attendance of God.
They do this because they have true knowledge and a righteous mind. So in reality, every place where we think about God is a sacred place. And every occasion when we think about God is a sacred occasion. When a man possesses a thankful heart, he chooses what is right and then makes his request in prayer. So he himself plays a role in receiving what he asks for. Through prayer, he eagerly grasps the thing he desires.
For when the giver of all good things sees that we are receptive, all good things follow as soon as we think of them. Our character is sifted through prayer, revealing how it stands with respect to duty. God has given us vocal cords and speech so that we can communicate with each other. But God hears the soul and the mind directly, since soul hears soul and mind hears mind. God doesn't wait for audible voices as do human interpreters, for he already knows everyone's thoughts.
The things that are expressed to us by voices are expressed to God by our thoughts. Before the beginning of creation, he already knew what our thoughts would be. Therefore, we may pray without our voices. We do this by concentrating our whole spiritual natures on expressing our thoughts to God, turning to him with no distractions. Every dawn is a replica of the day of birth. Light begins each morning as only a small point in the midst of darkness, but it gets brighter and brighter as the day goes on.
In the same way, the dawn of a new day of knowledge of truth shines forth on those lost in spiritual darkness. As the sun rises in the east, so we pray looking toward the sunrise in the east. The Psalms say, "Let my prayer be directed before you as incense, the uplifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Psalms 116:2. However, when evil men pray, their prayers can actually bring harm to them. They can also bring harm to others.
If they pray for and receive the things they consider to be good fortune, it will only bring them harm. That's because they are ignorant of how to use these things. For evil men pray to acquire the things they don't have. They ask for things that seem to be good but really aren't. James 4:3. The man who is intimate with God simply asks to be able to keep the things he needs. He asks to be able to adapt to whatever the future brings. He seeks eternity for the things he will receive.
The man who knows God prays to receive and to keep the things that are really good, the things that concern the soul. This man is content with what he has. He doesn't desire things he doesn't have, for he doesn't lack any good thing that he really needs. His needs have been supplied through divine grace and knowledge. Since he has everything he needs in himself, he doesn't want other things. He truly knows the mind of God, and he receives good things as soon as he prays.
He is in close contact with the almighty power. He earnestly desires to be spirit-minded. Because of these things, through boundless love, he is united to the Spirit.