Prayers
Praying in the Spirit
Paul taught on the topic of Prayer so clearly and practically that we must take the time to draw out all the instructions and testimonies of what he shared. In the previous articles, “Praying Paul’s Prayers and Instructions” and “Praying Powerful Prayers”, we highlighted all the locations that Paul wrote about all the Prayers he made, as well as, what he instructed us to Pray as Born-again Believers from the Book of Romans--thru to-- the Book of Hebrews. I shared a few comments and directed readers to consider other articles that I was led to write in the past on this site.
I sat down and asked the Lord to help me dig out an outline for the remaining teachings on the topic of Prayer that Paul wrote about. So far the Lord gave me 25 articles to be written about Paul’s Prayers and Instructions. I’m going to share this list with Scriptural references then we are going to teach about “Praying in the Spirit”. Why am I doing this? Because God forbid if anything happens that I cannot teach this at least you have an outline that you can refer too that you will not find in any topical concordance.
Paul’s Prayers to be taught in the future
1. Praying in the Spirit (Romans 8:26-27/ 1 Corinthians 14:13-15 NKJV)
2. Praying for Peoples Salvation (Romans 10:1/ 1 Tim. 2:1-8/ Repentance to Salvation 2 Tim.24-26)
3. Praying for Ministers (Romans 15:30-32/ 2 Cor. 13:7/ 1 Thess. 5:25/ 2 Thess. 3:1-2 NKJV)
4. Praying for Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor. 1:7-8 NKJV)
5. Praying for utterance to share the Gospel (1 Cor. 1:5-6 NKJV)
6. Prayer of Renouncing (2 Cor. 4:2 NKJV)
7. Praying to be Complete (2 Cor. 13:9, 11, 14/ Col. 4:12 NKJV)
8. Praise type Psalms in the New Testament by Paul (Ephesians 1:3-14 NKJV)
9. Praying for Spiritual wisdom & Revelation (Ephesians 1:16-23/ Col. 1:9-12 NKJV)
10. Praying for Inner Strength & Love (Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV)
11. Praying for the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-18 NKJV)
12. Praying for Ministers to Preach & Teach powerfully (Ephesians 6:19-20/ 2 Thess. 3:1-2)
13. Praying for the Fruits of the Spirit (Phil. 1:9-11 NKJV)
14. Praying thru anxiety to gain Peace (Phil. 4:6-9 NKJV)
15. Prayer of Thanksgiving (Eph. 5:20/ Col. 3:17, 23/ 4:2/ 1 Thess. 1:2-4/ 5:18 NKJV)
16. Praying without Ceasing (Col. 4:2/ 1 Thess. 2:13/ 5:17 NKJV)
17. Praying for an Open Door (Col. 4:3-4 NKJV)
18. Praying for the Lord to Establish New Believers (1 Thess. 3:10-13 NKJV)
19. Prayer of Sanctification (1 Thess. 5:23/ 2 Thess. 2:13-14 NKJV)
20. Prayer to be counted worthy (2 Thess. 1:11-12 NKJV)
21. Praying to operate in Faith and Power (2 Thess. 1:11-12 NKJV)
22. Praying for Peace upon others (2 Thess. 3:16 NKJV)
23. Praying for Mercy (2 Tim. 1:16, 18/ Hebrews 4:16 NKJV)
24. Confession type of Prayers & Proclamations (Hebrews 4:14 NKJV)
25. Our approach to God in Prayer (Hebrews 10:19-23 NKJV)
Before you think I’m some great Theologian—I simply drew out this outline with the Holy Spirit’s help from the 2 previous articles that were written. I was lead to go over the areas of teaching that Paul wrote about on the topic of Prayer from Romans thru to Hebrews and this is the outline that came from everything that Paul taught. The motive for the outline is for Leaders, Pastors and Teachers as well as, students of Scripture to go over these topics and study in your private time. However, I will teach on all these areas as the Holy Spirit leads me. Today, we will teach about “Praying in the Spirit”.
Praying in the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit
Paul taught us about the Holy Spirit’s Ministry in the life of a believer in Romans Chapter 8, starting in verse 2;
1. Paul said, the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Life) made us free from the law of sin and death (v. 2)
2. If we mentally focus on spiritual things we will live in-tune with the Holy Spirit (v. 5-6)
3. We are living a spiritual life because of the Holy Spirit in us directing and controlling our intents and motives as believers (v. 9)
4. The Holy Spirit will cause us to live a vibrant Christian lifestyle by helping us control our fleshly desires (v. 11-13)
5. If we are led by the Holy Spirit we are the children of God (v. 14)
6. He is the Spirit of Adoption—we have been adopted into the family of God (v. 15)
7. He testifies and assures our human Born-again spirit’s that we are the children of God (v. 16)
8. We have the first fruits of the Holy Spirit’s nature in us (a foretaste of what Heaven is like inside of us) (v. 23) (Romans 8:2, 5-6, 9, 11-16, 23 NKJV)
And finally, we arrive at the point of the Holy Spirit’s Ministry in us by way of HIM working with us in Prayer. Paul explained it this way I’m using the Amplified Bible;
So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what Prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. (v. 26)
And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will. (v. 27) (Romans 8:26-27 AMP)
Paul explained what the Holy Spirit does for us;
1. He bears us up during our weakness.
2. Because we may not know how to Pray in difficult situations.
3. So He meets us where we are and begins to help us Pray out of the situation.
4. He moves us to Pray in the Spirit (with unspeakable yearnings and groanings) that we cannot speak in our own native language.
5. The Holy Spirit searches our hearts and knows what we are thinking then begins to make Intercession Prayers on our behalf according to God’s Will.
What is Praying in the Spirit?
Paul made it clear what Praying in the Spirit is—it is the Holy Spirit finding out our problems and Inspiring us to Pray out in our human Born-again spirit’s in an unspeakable language. In other words, we are Inspired by the Holy Spirit to Pray in unknown Tongues.
To bring more clarity and confirmation to this point Paul mentions what it means to “Pray in the Spirit” in 1 Corinthians 14:14-15, let’s read this in the Amplified Bible;
For if I Pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] Prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody]. (v. 14)
Then what am I to do? I will Pray with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also Pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding; I will sing with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will sing [intelligently] with my mind and understanding also. (v. 15) (1 Corinthians 14:14-15 AMP)
Praying in the Spirit then according to Paul’s definition is Praying in unknown tongues by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We don’t understand it because we speak mysteries to God (1 Corinthians 14:2 NKJV). Praying intelligently is Praying Scriptural promises in our own native language and we understand what we are saying. For example, if we Pray “The Our Father Prayer”, whether we Pray it in English or Spanish we know what we are saying in the Prayer. However, Praying in unknown tongues we Pray as the Holy Spirit helps us, by inspiring us to Pray in accordance to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27 AMP).
How can we Pray in the Spirit?
We must be Baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues in order to be able to be inspired to “Pray in the Spirit” by the Holy Spirit in us. To gain more understanding about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit read the following articles written, 11-13-2011 “Power Evangelism on all Level’s” and 1-13-2013 “Your Heavenly Father Gives Good Gifts”. Once we understand the Divine Protocol of a Born-again Christian’s experience we can go on to experience the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and be in a spiritual position for the Holy Spirit to inspire us to Pray in the Spirit.
The Divine Protocol for all believers is to experience the following;
1. We must be Born-again (John 3:1-16 NKJV)
2. We must be Baptized in Water (Acts 8:5-12, 35-38)
3. We must be Baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17/ 10:44-47/ 19:1-7 NKJV)
I say this with all respect and with the motive to be sure that you are bless the way Jesus desires you to be blessed. Nicodemus believed in Jesus but Jesus told him he must be Born-again. Nicodemus was going to the Synagogue (Church), he paid tithes and Nicodemus also fasted and prayed however, he had to be Born-again. This is the first step for all believers in Christ Jesus. Then we must be Baptized in water and then in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues—this is the Divine Protocol that all believers must go thru to be able to be used by the Holy Spirit to “Pray in the Spirit”.
We are commanded by Jesus to Pray for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:9-13 NKJV). So follow Jesus’ command and experience the Blessing of being Baptized then go ahead and experience Praying in the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness (My Testimony)
I’m going to share a current Testimony of how the Holy Spirit inspires us to Pray in unknown tongues and experience an answer to that Prayer. On December 4th 2013, it was my daughters’ Birthday, I woke up and I could not get off the bed half my body was paralyzed. I called my wife who took the day off so we can celebrate my daughters’ Birthday at her school. My wife saw that my back had a huge lump on the entire right side. She went to get the rubbing alcohol. I Prayed silently thanking God for healing me 2000 years ago, then I thought about the woman bowed over that Jesus healed so I began to rebuke the devil the spirit of infirmity nothing worked. My wife came in and began telling me we should go to the doctor. I said let’s wait.
So I eventually with a lot of pain was able to put my clothes on. We took my daughter to school with every step I slowly took like a 90 year old man we made it to the school. Then we returned home until it was time to go back to the school to celebrate my daughters’ Birthday at 1pm. While waiting to go back to the school I grew worse. I did not take my clothes off, so my wife rubbed my back again to get me up. We finally went back to the school and I sat in the chair and could not get up. My wife insisted that we go to the doctor so we did. After waiting 3 hours on my daughters’ Birthday, I was diagnosed with muscle spasm and given 3 pain medications. My wife said I better take it I don’t take medication since 1992. So I said you know what let me take it. For 3 days all I did was sleep and remain in pain. I said Lord what is wrong? The thought came to me to Pray through the matter.
So on December 8th, 2013 12 midnight to 3 am I Prayed in the Spirit—until the Power of God came down and drove out the pain. Glory Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus!!! The next day I woke up and my wife came with the rubbing alcohol and said what happened I said God healed me! She looked in amazement because she’s still learning about the Miracles and Healings and how God demonstrates His Power. But she looked at my back and the lump was gone. She already witnessed a few Miracles already but she’s like Mary (Jesus’ mom) who remains silent about spiritual stuff that she cannot explain.
So the Holy Spirit helped me in my weakness and delivered me from the severe back pain. I read many testimonies over the years of believers Praying in the Spirit and experiencing many wonderful miracles and answers to Prayer. I will share more about this in the future. However, we have the Holy Spirit here with us to take us to a whole new level of Powerful living in the kingdom of God on earth. So Pray in the Spirit and witness the results for yourself, Prayer Works, Amen.
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