Praying in the Spirit
Praying in the Spirit is important as well in our healing experience. Many times we do not know how to pray about something because we can’t really pinpoint the problem. Romans 8:26 KJV tells us, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” If we try to figure it out on our own, we can miss it totally and not be getting to the source of the problem. Even medical tests may be misdiagnosing the root cause of the problem. The Holy Spirit penetrates the surface and gets to the heart of the problem with sensitivity to what is happening beneath the surface.
The Holy Spirit can determine the will of the Father when praying about something we don’t understand. Praying in the Spirit reframes a prayer request from our finite understanding. We may think this is the way it should be but miss it totally. We do not always have to know all the ins and outs of a situation or try to figure it out in detail for how God should solve the problem. Learn to be pliable in the prayer language of the Holy Spirit and let the language flow out of your inner being as it ill. It will be saying what needs to be said in an effortless way. Just let it flow out and it will be truly the heart’s cry.
Sometimes we are concerned about what we are saying when we pray in an unknown tongue and worry that we are not getting it right; but scripture says we can pray in the Spirit and in the understanding also. Ask the Spirit to show you what you are praying about. It will usually not be a word for word translation of what you are saying but a general impression that you will know you are on the right track.
Praying in the Spirit aligns us to God’s will. Where we have been missing it when we pray in English, we come closer to hitting the target. Paul said, “I will pray with the spirit and pray with the understanding also” (I Corinthians 14:15). The New Living Translation says, “I will pray in the spirit and I will also pray in words I understand…” I will cover the need from all angles.
Many of us know that there is an effective way of praying other than in the language we understand but we don’t do it for one reason or another. Maybe praying in tongues has had a stigma about it when we were growing up. We didn’t do it in our church and we were told to stay away from it. We often had the impression that it was from the devil or that it was the Holy Rollers on the other side of the track who did it. It didn’t take much convincing to keep us as far away from it as possible because we didn’t understand a language that we didn’t learn in school. People want to be accepted by others and avoid being criticized. We don’t want to look foolish in the eyes of our friends, so rather than being laughed at, we avoid doing anything out of the norm. Another reason we don’t pray in the Spirit is because it is time consuming. We often pray a minimum time about things. If God answers, OK, and if He doesn’t OK. Must not be His will we say. If we doubt or downright don’t believe, we do without. We learn to live with the undesirable circumstance in our life and justify why they are there. We say that is just inevitable. It’s the process of aging and we can’t do anything about it. We doubt and do without too much of the time. The man at the Pool of Bethesda had Jesus’ full attention when Jesus sked him point blank, “Do you want to be well.” The man came up with the answer, “Someone always jumps in ahead of me when the angel troubles the water” rather than a clear cut “Yes” Or “No” answer. Praying in the Sprit was made available to us on the day of Pentecost to help us with our many need and yet we are not taking advantage of His help. The Holy Spirit is our guide. Jesus told his disciples, “When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…” (John 16:13). He communicates through our prayer language and gets it right the first time. Let us not be so quick to reject things that seem unfamiliar to us because of fear or uncertainty. Let us investigate on our own because others may not have the final answer either. Jesus told his disciples he would send another comforter. John 14:26 tells us what this Comforter will do. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all I said to you.” Certainly we would not want to reject the teacher that Jesus said he was sending to us.
In spite of fearfulness and lack of answers, let us enter into a relationship with the comforter where He can assist us in our struggles with how to pray and what to pray about. He wants us to live a victorious life defeating the devil. God wants us healed and to be done with thing that continually try to plague us and drag us down. Revelation 12:11 tells us that “we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.” Let’s move toward that goal by praying in the Spirit about all of our concerns.”
