Prayer XXVIII

I have defined prayer, talked about components of prayer, who should pray, reasons for prayer, time to pray, places of prayer, occasions of prayer and how to pray.

From article ten, I have been talking on types of prayer and I shall continue with the types by talking on the uses of praying in the Spirit in this article.

Beneath are some of the uses of praying in the Spirit.

We receive uncommon guidance through praying in the spirit. Take the case of apostle Paul into consideration, he and his team was thinking of going to Asia for ministration, but he says the spirit forbade them, and after a while he would receive revelation concerning the people of Macedonia to come and help them.

“Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,

“After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.

“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia, and help us.” (Act 16:6-7 & 9)

They were guided because they have been praying in the spirit. God does not want them to work (labor) for nothing, God wants their works to have reward, thence, he stopped them, guiding them to where their words would yield maxima products.

“Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” (Jer 31:16)

“And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mar 4:20)

He is believers advocate. When the serpent, our archenemy who accuses us day and night approaches (Rev. 12:10) the throne of grace to present our matter before Yahweh, Holy Ghost would stand for us to defend 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.” (Rm. 8:26)

Advocates like lawyers defend one before the judge, thus, when the accuser raises alarm concerning our lives, the (Holy) Spirit would rise to plead our cause. (1Jn 2:1)

He is a great explorer. What we can never discover he would search them out and bring them to us. Consider the case of Jesus birth, his parents never knew the King has sent out people to kill the child, but the Spirit of God revealed the disposition of the King unto Joseph advising him to take the child away from the land lest he be killed. (Mat 2:13)

Let us see some of the ways in which He, Holy Spirit helps us as we get connected to him in the Spirit to search things out for us.

(a) In Dealing with Natural Man (or Outsiders): The picture of the heart of a natural man, a person without Christ, without salvation has been painted by prophet Jeremiah that it is full of evil. (Jer 17:9) Thus, when we are dealing with man, natural man we need this Spirit to help us decern what is in the heart of our neighbor, especially the person whop has not been saved. Like my late mentor used to say, “it is death that is in the minds of unbelievers”. Unbelievers can hardly think of something good for his fellow human, it is not their fault it is what we have inherited from our ancestors after the fall of man. That was why Cain killed his brother.

Therefore, when dealing with unbelievers we need this Spirit more than ever to reveal their status to us lest we enter traps.

(b) In Dealing with Us: In presenting our requests to the Father of Jesus who is our father, he also searches our hearts.

“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rm. 8:27)

Therefore, as I said earlier, when we ask for substance A, and he sees that we are not in dire need of that at the moment, he would delay the answering of that and jump to the one we are in dire need of, maybe such is item Q on our table of requests. He jumped to that because he has searched our hearts.

Sometimes we become confused of the will of God, but the spirit in us would never be confused about what the will of God is, thence he also intercedes for us in tandem with the will of God not in accordance with our will.

Consider the case of apostle Peter when he received a revelation to go to Cornelius the gentile, he was not ready to go because it was not in accordance with the Jew rules, but the spirit in him would not allow him rest until he yielded to that and through him the gentiles were saved. (Acts 10)

“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rm. 8:27)

As we speak to him in the spirit, he helps us to build our faith. The little faith in us would be stimulated by this to become big faith.

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 1: 20)

There was an insane woman whose uncle a deacon in our church has been bringing to the church for months. Coupled with this terrible sickness he also had other ailments in her body which had defied medications. On a day of note, I have been praying in the spirit and immediately the woman steps into the church, I was led by the spirit to lay hands on her, speak briefly in tongues and command the demons behind those infirmities to leave her and that was how she got well.

My initial feeble faith was boosted by praying in the spirit, the church was glad for the miraculous healing which brought many to Christ Jesus.

When we speak to God in the spirit, we address stubborn and stiff-necked demons spiritually. That was what happened when that Gadarene man saw Jesus and cried out even before Jesus got to them. He has approached the demons spiritually and they had become uncomfortable in the vessel they were occupying and thence had to leave the vessel when he commanded them to leave. (Mk. 5:1-10; 16:16-18)

Praying in the spirit helps in church planting. As we know through this means the first church had over three thousand people saved after the preaching of Apostle Peter. (Act 2:38-41) Also what happened to apostle Paul as he moved to Macedonia to preach to them (Acts 16:9)

When we are praying with understanding, and the congregation heard what we are saying they can reply us, by saying “amen”. (I Cor. 14:16)

The congregation would also learn from what we are saying when we are speaking with understanding. Learning from one another is the purpose of the fellowship and when we go to a fellowship where we cannot learn from other brethren it is better we leave such congregation.

“Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.” (I Cor. 14:19)

These are some of the uses of praying in the spirit, and it is good of us to always be praying in the spirit to our heavenly father. In the next article I shall be summing praying in the spirit up.

It helps us to pray better. Sometimes we may be thinking that substance A is what we need whereas it is substance F that should come first. But according to our lists of preference, it is substance A we thought we lack and be in urgent need of.

Since we are myopic, and cannot spiritually see far, we continue to pray for this, but as we pray spiritually, God would re-arrange that scale of preference for us and bring unto us what we urgently be in need of, though not arranged like that on our scale of preference.

“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.” (Rm. 8:26)