"When our work first began in Los Angeles in December of 1962, I came together with two other brothers five or six days a week for three weeks to pray from 8:30 A.M. until noon. We did not talk much, and we did not have a particular object for our prayer. We simply knelt and prayed, each one in turn. After those three weeks of prayer, we had our first winter conference. Already in that conference we began to see the Lord's answers to our prayers. I can testify that in the years since that time, we have seen many answers to those prayers. We must all learn to practice the exercise of our spirit by opening ourselves to pray in any situation and in any kind of meeting. Our spirit must be strong, living, and ready to open with others to pray."
(Collected Works of Witness Lee, The (1966) Vol. 2: p. 32.)

I have seen many churches in both the East and the West, and I feel that the church in Los Angeles is the strongest in the spirit of prayer. This church has been newly raised up, but its spirit of prayer is very strong. The church in Los Angeles began from prayer. Before the saints took the ground, several brothers gathered together to pray daily. One brother lived about half an hour from where they gathered to pray, so he would rise up at five in the morning in order to make it to the prayer time. These brothers continued in prayer for about two years. Shortly after they began to meet, we visited them in order to strengthen the atmosphere of prayer. We did not focus on preaching the word. I have never seen a local church with such a prayer meeting. In the meeting there were no announcements or singing, only prayer. During the three years that I was in Los Angeles, the saints also would fast and come together to pray every New Year's Eve. These prayers were not only answered by God, but they also brought in the Spirit in a strong way. The more they prayed, the stronger their spirit became; the more they prayed, the more active their spirit became. This is the strength of that church.

Among the workers the spirit of prayer is not adequate, and among the elders it is even worse. As a result, the spirit of prayer in the churches is not good, and our service before the Lord is not sweet. If we desire our service to be fresh and sweet, we must pray. Prayer is the first matter; it is more important than preaching the word. In the meetings we should not emphasize listening to messages but emphasize prayer. The church in Los Angeles pays more attention to the matter of prayer than to listening to messages on the Word. It is good for the saints to listen to a message, but the saints in Los Angeles pay more attention to prayer, knowing that prayer is more precious than listening to messages.
(Collected Works of Witness Lee, The (1967) Vol. 1: pp. 218-219)

"Praise the Lord that He does have some marked-out ones! At the beginning of the Lord's recovery in this country, in 1962, some brothers and I prayed day after day for all the seeking ones. We prayed that the Lord would bring the seeking ones to His recovery. Who are the seeking ones? They are the ones marked out by God."
(Visions of Ezekiel, The, Chapter 11, Section 4)

In the 1960s when we were in Elden Hall in Los Angeles, at least seventy to eighty percent of those who attended the Lord's Day morning meeting also attended the prayer meeting.
(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, Message 13)