Praying in the Spirit

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Berserk

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Most Christians are familiar with Paul's command to "put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17)," but are less familiar with this key to doing so:

"Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end stay alert and always persevere in supplications for all the saints (6:18)."

Praying in the Spirit keeps us in the experience of God's love and thus builds up our faith: "Build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God (Jude 20-21)."

What is praying in the Spirit? True, speaking in tongues is one form of praying the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15), but not the only form. Prayer in the Spirit is Spirit-directed prayer. But how can a believer know that her prayer is directed by the Spirit?

I learned what this means in youthful prayer experiments. When I was a college student, I went through a phase in which my prayer life seemed mechanical and impotent, So I made a dramatic decision: after the Sunday morning service, I would climb up the steps to the high steeple of our large old church, where there was a small Sunday school room. I would fast for lunch and instead spend most of the hours before the evening evangelistic service praying in the steeple. I had never before prayed for such a long period and I soon began to wonder if this was a good idea. I felt uncomfortable; my knees were sore; my praying was strained and forced and became repetitive as I ran out of words and wondered what I should be praying. This apparent failure hurt my pride, and so, I gutted it out until something remarkable began to happen after about 45 minutes: it was as if I felt the gentle breeze of the Spirit's presence and began to feel enveloped in divine love. Suddenly, the words just flowed effortlessly an spontaneously from my mind (words of praise, thanksgiving, petitions interspersed by a sense of being directed to enter periods of listening silence) and I felt a profound joy, praying in the Spirit for several hours. I took a break to finally catch a bite prior to the evening service. I think I had 3 of these all-afternoon prayer vigils.

Among my many petitions, I would pray for many conversions in the evening evangelistic service; and during our altar calls an unusually large number of people came forward to commit their lives to Christ. It was clear that my 3 prayer vigils helped unleash the convicting work of the Spirit. Decades later, I wonder what would happen if my weekly prayer group became connected to a church that conducts evening evangelistic services and collectively fasted and prayed in the Spirit for long hours as I did on those 3 holy occasions in my youth. As it is, our prayer group often experiences miracles and other obvious answers to prayer.

Paul tells us that to pray in the Spirit we must "stay alert" and "always persevere in supplications." Staying alert is essential in spiritual warfare. Many Christians let their minds wander during extended prayer sessions and drift off into tired daydreams. The need to persevere in supplications implies that longer prayer vigils are more effective than shorter sessions. Why, you ask, doesn't God get my message the first time I express it? Do I need to nag a reluctant God into compliance with my request? Hardly! I can take considerable time to shut distractions out for an adequate prayer focus and to deepen one's longing intensely enough to establish a deep enough connection with God for prayers to become effective.









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Dave L

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Most Christians are familiar with Paul's command to "put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17)," but are less familiar with this key to doing so:

"Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end stay alert and always persevere in supplications for all the saints (6:18)."

Praying in the Spirit keeps us in the experience of God's love and thus builds up our faith: "Build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God (Jude 20-21)."

What is praying in the Spirit? True, speaking in tongues is one form of praying the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15), but not the only form. Prayer in the Spirit is Spirit-directed prayer. But how can a believer know that her prayer is directed by the Spirit?

I learned what this means in youthful prayer experiments. When I was a college student, I went through a phase in which my prayer life seemed mechanical and impotent, So I made a dramatic decision: after the Sunday morning service, I would climb up the steps to the high steeple of our large old church, where there was a small Sunday school room. I would fast for lunch and instead spend most of the hours before the evening evangelistic service praying in the steeple. I had never before prayed for such a long period and I soon began to wonder if this was a good idea. I felt uncomfortable; my knees were sore; my praying was strained and forced and became repetitive as I ran out of words and wondered what I should be praying. This apparent failure hurt my pride, and so, I gutted it out until something remarkable began to happen after about 45 minutes: it was as if I felt the gentle breeze of the Spirit's presence and began to feel enveloped in divine love. Suddenly, the words just flowed effortlessly an spontaneously from my mind (words of praise, thanksgiving, petitions interspersed by a sense of being directed to enter periods of listening silence) and I felt a profound joy, praying in the Spirit for several hours. I took a break to finally catch a bite prior to the evening service. I think I had 3 of these all-afternoon prayer vigils.

Among my many petitions, I would pray for many conversions in the evening evangelistic service; and during our altar calls an unusually large number of people came forward to commit their lives to Christ. It was clear that my 3 prayer vigils helped unleash the convicting work of the Spirit. Decades later, I wonder what would happen if my weekly prayer group became connected to a church that conducts evening evangelistic services and collectively fasted and prayed in the Spirit for long hours as I did on those 3 holy occasions in my youth. As it is, our prayer group often experiences miracles and other obvious answers to prayer.

Paul tells us that to pray in the Spirit we must "stay alert" and "always persevere in supplications." Staying alert is essential in spiritual warfare. Many Christians let their minds wander during extended prayer sessions and drift off into tired daydreams. The need to persevere in supplications implies that longer prayer vigils are more effective than shorter sessions. Why, you ask, doesn't God get my message the first time I express it? Do I need to nag a reluctant God into compliance with my request? Hardly! I can take considerable time to shut distractions out for an adequate prayer focus and to deepen one's longing intensely enough to establish a deep enough connection with God for prayers to become effective.









1
How do you build yourself up in faith if faith comes from hearing the word, and you do not understand what you are saying? First century tongues speakers knew what they were saying and were edified by it. Today's tongue speakers know not what they say.
 

Berserk

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Dave L: "How do you build yourself up in faith if faith comes from hearing the word, and you do not understand what you are saying?

This thread deals with praying in the Spirit (in English) and does not focus on speaking in tongues. You are actually inquiring about the purpose and benefits of tongues and that is a subject for another thread. Let me just say this here: were it not for an unexpected experience of speaking in tongues at age 16, I would now probably not even be a Christian because I had grown so skeptical of the inspiration and authority of Scripture. So I'm so grateful to God for using that spiritual gift to rescue me from my growing agnosticism.

Dave: "First century tongues speakers knew what they were saying and were edified by it. Today's tongue speakers know not what they say."

I disagree with both statements. First in Acts 2, the 120 didn't know what they were saying; rather the spectators recognized their own native languages in the glossolalia. After that, in Acts the glossolalia was neither understood nor interpreted. Second, today's tongues speakers often speak in languages recognized by the witnesses who know that language. I can provided several testimonies to that effect. But most modern glossolalia is only understood through an interpretation.
 
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Dave L

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Dave L: "How do you build yourself up in faith if faith comes from hearing the word, and you do not understand what you are saying?

This thread deals with praying in the Spirit (in English) and does not focus on speaking in tongues. You are actually inquiring about the purpose and benefits of tongues and that is a subject for another thread. Let me just say this here: were it not for an unexpected experience of speaking in tongues at age 16, I would now probably not even be a Christian because I had grown so skeptical of the inspiration and authority of Scripture. So I'm so grateful to God for using that spiritual gift to rescue me from my growing agnosticism.

Dave: "First century tongues speakers knew what they were saying and were edified by it. Today's tongue speakers know not what they say."

I disagree with both statements. First in Acts 2, the 120 didn't know what they were saying; rather the spectators recognized their own native languages in the glossolalia. After that, in Acts the glossolalia was neither understood nor interpreted. Second, today's tongues speakers often speak in languages recognized by the witnesses who know that language. I can provided several testimonies to that effect. But most modern glossolalia is only understood through an interpretation.
I'm just saying today's tongues are nothing like the originals and are of human origin or worse.
 

Berserk

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And I'm saying that no experience available to us can provide a more electrifying and life-changing encounter with God than the gift of tongues as I experienced it as a 16-year-old. It happened in a darkened amphitheater and one lady who witnessed my outpouring said she was staring at me because my face was glowing in the dark. A Lutheran pastor at one point interrupted me to say he didn't believe in speaking in tongues and so was curious about my ecstatic experience. I didn't argue with him; I just touched him gently on the forehead and he exploded in other tongues! Such was the awesome power of the Spirit on display that fateful evening!
 
D

Dave L

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And I'm saying that no experience available to us can provide a more electrifying and life-changing encounter with God than the gift of tongues as I experienced it as a 16-year-old. It happened in a darkened amphitheater and one lady who witnessed my outpouring said she was staring at me because my face was glowing in the dark. A Lutheran pastor at one point interrupted me to say he didn't believe in speaking in tongues and so was curious about my ecstatic experience. I didn't argue with him; I just touched him gently on the forehead and he exploded in other tongues! Such was the awesome power of the Spirit on display that fateful evening!
Speaking in Tongues: Glossalalia and Stress Reduction
 

Hidden In Him

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Most Christians are familiar with Paul's command to "put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17)," but are less familiar with this key to doing so:

"Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end stay alert and always persevere in supplications for all the saints (6:18)."

Praying in the Spirit keeps us in the experience of God's love and thus builds up our faith: "Build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God (Jude 20-21)."

What is praying in the Spirit? True, speaking in tongues is one form of praying the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15), but not the only form. Prayer in the Spirit is Spirit-directed prayer. But how can a believer know that her prayer is directed by the Spirit?

I learned what this means in youthful prayer experiments. When I was a college student, I went through a phase in which my prayer life seemed mechanical and impotent, So I made a dramatic decision: after the Sunday morning service, I would climb up the steps to the high steeple of our large old church, where there was a small Sunday school room. I would fast for lunch and instead spend most of the hours before the evening evangelistic service praying in the steeple. I had never before prayed for such a long period and I soon began to wonder if this was a good idea. I felt uncomfortable; my knees were sore; my praying was strained and forced and became repetitive as I ran out of words and wondered what I should be praying. This apparent failure hurt my pride, and so, I gutted it out until something remarkable began to happen after about 45 minutes: it was as if I felt the gentle breeze of the Spirit's presence and began to feel enveloped in divine love. Suddenly, the words just flowed effortlessly an spontaneously from my mind (words of praise, thanksgiving, petitions interspersed by a sense of being directed to enter periods of listening silence) and I felt a profound joy, praying in the Spirit for several hours. I took a break to finally catch a bite prior to the evening service. I think I had 3 of these all-afternoon prayer vigils.

Among my many petitions, I would pray for many conversions in the evening evangelistic service; and during our altar calls an unusually large number of people came forward to commit their lives to Christ. It was clear that my 3 prayer vigils helped unleash the convicting work of the Spirit. Decades later, I wonder what would happen if my weekly prayer group became connected to a church that conducts evening evangelistic services and collectively fasted and prayed in the Spirit for long hours as I did on those 3 holy occasions in my youth. As it is, our prayer group often experiences miracles and other obvious answers to prayer.

Paul tells us that to pray in the Spirit we must "stay alert" and "always persevere in supplications." Staying alert is essential in spiritual warfare. Many Christians let their minds wander during extended prayer sessions and drift off into tired daydreams. The need to persevere in supplications implies that longer prayer vigils are more effective than shorter sessions. Why, you ask, doesn't God get my message the first time I express it? Do I need to nag a reluctant God into compliance with my request? Hardly! I can take considerable time to shut distractions out for an adequate prayer focus and to deepen one's longing intensely enough to establish a deep enough connection with God for prayers to become effective.

Good thread! I've found the same thing is true. Prayer is generally labored in the first 30-45 minutes or so, but if you stay at it the Spirit eventually takes over, and your prayer enters into being what would rightly be called "in the Spirit." I believe it is because we are not yet praying His prayers but our own, and only after we have stopped talking and started listening do we finally start speaking what the Spirit is trying to say through us.

Btw, you'll find it more proactive talking to a brick wall than to @DaveL on this subject, but at least the thread won't go unnoticed, LoL.

Blessings in Christ, and you are definitely on to something, IMO.
Hidden
 
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Dave L

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Good thread! I've found the same thing is true. Prayer is generally labored in the first 30-45 minutes or so, but if you stay at it the Spirit eventually takes over, and your prayer enters into being what would rightly be called "in the Spirit." I believe it is because we are not yet praying His prayers but our own, and only after we have stopped talking and started listening do we finally start speaking what the Spirit is trying to say through us.

Btw, you'll find it more proactive talking to a brick wall than to @DaveL on this subject, but at least the thread won't go unnoticed, LoL.

Blessings in Christ, and you are definitely on to something, IMO.
Hidden
Voodoo practitioners get the same buzz too. Speaking in Tongues: Glossalalia and Stress Reduction
 

Hidden In Him

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Speaking of, this is the thought I have when I sometimes read your posts, LoL.

07f9d8d32c04f1830ecbfe7a79cc103e.jpg
 
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Hidden In Him

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You need to be careful going beyond scripture. You are in the devil's domain when you do.

Ok, point well taken. But I think you need to be careful about taking the Spirit of God almost completely out of what you term Christianity until it is nothing more than an empty religion with no power in it.
 
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Dave L

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And as our conversations continue, I usually hit this phase.


117705794-4270035-Voodoo.png
That's OK. How do you know what you are saying when speaking in tongues? Faith comes by hearing the word, and there is no faith connected to gibberish.
 
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Dave L

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Ok, point well taken. But I think you need to be careful about taking the Spirit of God almost completely out of what you term Christianity until it is nothing more than an empty religion with no power in it.
Scripture (the Holy Spirit) refutes your claims.
 

Hidden In Him

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That's OK. How do you know what you are saying when speaking in tongues? Faith comes by hearing the word, and there is no faith connected to gibberish.

I've had the Spirit of God reveal to me specially what I was praying in tongues before, and it was startling...

Dave, you were in Pentecostal churches before. You're telling me that during that entire time you never witnessed ANYONE speak in genuine tongues and interpretation, or in prophecy? If that's the case, no wonder you are so messed up on this issue, but there was a time when many churches still moved in the real thing, and people who actually spoke a foreign language came up to others in a church and wanted to know how they knew their native language, at which point the one who was praying was just as astonished as anyone else that he had been speaking in that person's native tongue. I think you're judging this issue based solely on some really lousy examples of what true Pentecostalism actually is.
 
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Berserk

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Dave will apparently say practically anything to divert attention away from the topic of prevailing prayer, a discipline of which he is apparently oblivious. In a separate thread on speaking in tongues I plan to make constructive use of Dave as my apologetic whipping boy!:rolleyes:
 
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Hidden In Him

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Dave will apparently say practically anything to divert attention away from the topic of prevailing prayer, a discipline of which he is apparently oblivious. In a separate thread on speaking in tongues I plan to make constructive use of Dave as my apologetic whipping boy!:rolleyes:

LoL. I don't think he deliberately diverts attention away so much as he just takes it upon himself to set everyone straight on "proper" doctrine, even when he has little to nothing to go on other than limited experience and highly uninspired interpretations of scripture.

But about your question in the OP, I totally agree that it shouldn't be considered "nagging" to seek the Lord in prayer incessantly. Corporate prayer is especially powerful if you can get a group of people suddenly entering into the Spirit of God together as One, and the Spirit starts moving and speaking through everyone in unison at the same time. Then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaks through the congregation, and powerful things start happening. The gifts of the Spirit start to explode, and congregations enter into true fellowship in the Spirit.

It's sad, but so few even seem to understand these things. Even my little Pentecostal Hispanic church that I attend doesn't fully understand it, or they would do it more. But I don't judge anyone over it. Tarrying and laboring and agonizing in prayer can be hard work, and even I am not always up to it.
 
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Dave L

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I've had the Spirit of God reveal to me specially what I was praying in tongues before, and it was startling...

Dave, you were in Pentecostal churches before. You're telling me that during that entire time you never witnessed ANYONE speak in genuine tongues and interpretation, or in prophecy? If that's the case, no wonder you are so messed up on this issue, but there was a time when many churches still moved in the real thing, and people who actually spoke a foreign language came up to others in a church and wanted to know how they knew their native language, at which point the one who was praying was just as astonished as anyone else that he had been speaking in that person's native tongue. I think you're judging this issue based solely on some really lousy examples of what true Pentecostalism actually is.
Tongues only came through the two outpourings or through an apostle's hands. Your do not have the gift of tongues by any stretch.