Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Pray in the Spirit!

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Ephesians 6:18-20

Our final weapon against the enemy is the most powerful, and it is praying in the Spirit. I don't think any of us truly knows what goes on in the spirit realm when we pray in our prayer language. Paul tells us in Romans 8:26 that the Spirit prays for us through groanings and utterances that cannot be understood. And why is that? Because our human minds cannot pray the necessary specifics and details that only God would know. 

I love how John tells us in John 11: 33, 38 that as Jesus prayed for Lazarus to be raised up, He groaned and sighed within Himself, which I believe was Him groaning/praying in the Spirit. Just recently, an exciting historical discovery was made when ancient scrolls were found in the Vatican describing Jesus bringing a stillborn baby to life. It is intriguing that the writer of the scrolls claims Jesus looked to heaven and prayed in an indecipherable tongue before the miracle happened. How interesting!

In John 4:23-24, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that a time was coming when God's people would worship Him in spirit and in truth. Before the Spirit came to indwell people as God's born again children, God was worshiped via the Mosaic law through the sacrificial system. People had to go to their priest, rabbi, or a prophet to hear from the Lord. Now, we can speak to and hear from the Lord as we sit in our family rooms or as we go about our days, all because the Holy Spirit was given to us as our comforter and guide who dwells inside of us. How amazing! He prays through us, searching the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10)  Again, the ramifications of this wonderful gift are astounding.

One of the side effects of praying in the Spirit is a boldness to preach the Gospel with divine revelation that points only to Jesus! Just look at what the timid, scared Peter did on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out and he and the other disciples prayed in other tongues. (Acts 2). The boldness Peter displayed in preaching how Jesus fulfilled prophecy exceeded anything he or any other priest or rabbi had demonstrated before. I can personally attest that my revelation of how Jesus fulfilled Scripture grew by leaps and bounds when I began praying in my prayer language. 

Again, if we truly understood the power of praying in the Spirit, all of us would probably pray night and day! It must be powerful and deadly to the enemy because religious people fight it tooth and nail! But tongues is in the Bible, so I'll keep on believing and praying! Amen to that!