Praying In The Spirit

Praying in the Spirit

I had the good fortune of watching the Narnia film , and one of my favourite moments is when the children are all playing hide and seek and you see them running around the house, and Lucy enters through the wardrobe. You see her pushing aside all those fur coats and enters into another world. She has removing herself from the physical world into a new dimension, not just something similar but something totally new. Well prayer is like that. It acknowledges that there is a wardrobe that needs to be entered into and that there is a spiritual world with spiritual realties. The wardrobe in the film is about about entry into a new realm, prayer is communicating with God. But prayer like people comes in many shapes and sizes.

You can have short people, long people, public people, old people, young people, funny people, boring people, people you like, people you love, people you don’t like, people who are a pain in the neck, people who make you laugh, people who make you fall asleep, people who make you feel alive and people who make you feel like the world’s about to end.

Also with prayer there are all kinds of prayer.

Private prayer,

individual prayer,

corporate prayer,

long prayers,

short prayers,

standing prayers,

sitting down prayers,

The prayer of faith,

the prayer of asking,

the prayer of intercession,

the prayer of repentance,

the prayer of adoration,

the prayer of thanksgiving,

out-loud prayer,

silent prayer,

prayer with others,

laying on your face prayers,

standing on your feet prayer,

while you walk prayers,

while you drive prayers,

one word prayers,

many word prayers,

prayers when your car doesn’t work,

prayers when your kids drive you up the walls,

prayers when your dog won’t come back,

Prayers about your computer when it crashes for the third time in 5 minutes.

Prayers when your at the end of where you can cope,

prayers when life is out of control

and prayers when you have no words left to say.

And a reading of the Bible will tell you how important prayer is.

It was when Jesus came out of the water praying that the Holy Spirit came upon him

It was in a prayer meeting that he New Testament church was birthed. (Acts 1:14)

It was through prayer that the good news of Jesus was spread (Acts 6:4)

It was through prayer that people became Christians and entered into a relationship with Jesus.

Jesus went from place to prayer, and in between cast out devils, healed the sick and raised with the dead. He lived in constant communication with the Father. We all know that prayer is essential, without it we are treading water – without it we are another business trying to do good works, without it we are a house without foundations, without it we are wasting our time as individuals and as a church.

Yet how many times do we hear Christians say “Please pray for me I think I’m praying too much.” NEVER

I am sure if I was to do a survey and ask 2 questions – do you feel you pray enough, do you feel you happy with your prayer life.” Everyone would – except for those who had fallen asleep. I won’t try it to see who has fallen asleep. We would??

Yet I have not come here to send us on a big guilt trip – if so I would be the first one in the queue. Let us lay aside any feelings of guilt any feelings of inadequacy. Look around you – the challenges you face in prayer are likely exactly the same as all those around you. You are not on your own. We are in this together. Friends when we look at the Bible we know that prayer is vital – we know that personal prayer is essential – we know that with it we hold the key to GOD’s kingdom spreading we hold the key to transformed lives. As yet I haven’t seen the Dublin room overflowing with prayers – The knee pieces on our trousers look very healthy they don’t look as if they have been over kneeled on. I believe the Lord wants to speak to each one of us today about our prayer-life, but he does not come with a big stick but with open arms urging us to come into his presence. And I confess that having spent time in preparing this I have felt convicted.

We want to be more faithful, we want to see the Lord use us, we want to be part of God’s great missionary enterprise, we want to be involved in HIS plans for this world, we don’t want to be some half bit piece on the side-lines, but in on the battle. Friends if you want more of God, if you want a deeper walk and to better know his will then I’d ask you to join me in reading Psalm 42 together as 1 body.