PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT
Nothing distinguishes the children of God so clearly and strongly as prayer. It is the expression of a relation to God, a yearning for divine communion. It is the outward and upward flow of the inward life to its original fountain. To be little in prayer is to be little with God. To be deeper in prayer is to be deeper in God. Prayer can do anything God can; for the arm of God responds to the touch of prayer. Everything works by prayer and nothing works without it. When we pray we bring God into a situation. Impossible is nothing to prayer. Prayer is the greatest assault weapon a Christian has. It releases divine energy in a situation. Prayer is projecting your human spirit into the unseen world, combating with the forces of darkness. When we pray we join forces with God’s angels in a battle against the spirits of the devil.
………The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5: 16
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance……
Ephesians 6: 18
The Bible encourages us to pray without ceasing, to pray always, everywhere and in the power of the Holy Ghost. Prayer is very important if we are to enlarge the capacity of our human spirit and manifest the Life of God. Prayer precedes power. Jesus prayed to the extent that the Life of God freely radiated from Him to heal people.
And it came to pass in those days, that he went into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples……
And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
Luke 6: 12, 13, 17-19
While it is important to pray yet it is not every form of prayer that enlarges the capacity of the human spirit. Praying with understanding, while it is effective and powerful cannot be compared with praying with the spirit when it concerns the capacity enlargement of the human spirit.
Praying with understanding is when prayer is uttered in articulate speech. It is praying in the words that can be understood while praying with the spirit is directly engaging your human spirit in prayers. Praying in the spirit is praying in a strange language. It is praying in tongues.
What is it then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
1 Corinthians 14: 15
A believer can pray with understanding and also can pray with his human spirit. I am not trying to posit that praying with understanding is less powerful than praying in tongues. Praying with understanding is very powerful especially if it is directed by the Holy Spirit however, praying in tongues is the kind of prayer that impacts and enlarges the capacity of the human spirit.
For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 14: 14
The statement “My spirit prayeth” refers to the human spirit and not the Holy Spirit. When you speak in tongues your human spirit is the one that prays through the help of the Holy Spirit. Your mind is not engaged in the prayer except in the case where the interpretation of what you are praying for is given. In this prayer your mouth serves as an organ of speech yet you do not understand what you pray for.
For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
1 Corinthians 14: 2
When we speak in tongues we speak mysteries. Mysteries are secrets. A man who speaks in tongues speaks personally and directly to God. When you speak mysteries you will hear mysteries. The edge a believer has over one another is the secrets that God reveals to him. The more mysteries you speak the more mysteries you know.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us.
1 Corinthians 2: 11, 12
When you constantly and effectively pray in tongue you sharpen your conscience which is the voice of your human spirit, your intuition which is the organ of perception and revelation knowledge to accurately hear and know the mind of God. You will not be able to adequately exercise spiritual power if you do not know what God is saying.
