Ron:
Would like to talk a little bit about prayer in the Spirit. For those of us who have the gift of tongues. I think it's a fabulous gift that the Lord's given. Because it enables us to pray, I believe, very purely because it's the Holy Spirit praying through us, and that we're not muddling the waters up with our brains or our own wants and desires.
I can focus on an issue or a person that I'm burdened for. I'll just make an example. So I can pray for our president. And the word says, pray for your leaders. I can pray for our president and his cabinet and all those that I don't even know personally, but I can pray for them and God's perfect will with no reservations, knowing that my prayers are being heard and they're effective a hundred percent because they are being voiced by the Holy Spirit through me. Sometimes the Lord will give me revelation and I'm praying for a certain person or a certain situation, and I can speak things prophetically, but if not, I'm not really worried about that because I know that I'm being effective. And I can spend hours praying in the Spirit.
In the those hours of prayer, my mind is completely ineffective. The Lord just is not concerned about showing me what I'm praying for, but He is concerned that I'm set to pray and that I'm faithful in praying. That's a whole nother level of prayer and dedication, and it does take a dedication because your mind's going to rebel after a while saying, am I being effective?
Am I just speaking into the wind. No you're not. You're being more effective. How many things that the Lord has going on, He could not even explain it to us 'cause our mind couldn't even grasp it. But He can use us to voice and create something in the spirit realm we have no knowledge of. Prayer is such a huge, huge thing. But I think it's very important that you pray, right, that you don't make things up.
There's many people that they have a situation and they begin to pray out of their own desires. What they think should happen in the situation, and that is the complete wrong way to pray. It really creates confusion or rebellion because it's not coming from the Holy Spirit. It's coming from your own desires and what you, your morals, your desires, which you're convinced that this person needs or this situation needs.
And if you're gonna pray something that directive, you better have confirmation, supernatural confirmation from many voices before you start directing in the spirit realm. Oh, this person needs this, or, this situation needs to go this way. It's that important. I don't know if people really think about that type of stuff.
When you get into prayer, the Lord starts speaking to you because it is a very, very serious thing to Him. If we're gonna be channels of prayer and intercession, then we better be pure channels and speaking it right.
Debbie:
I think when we first start out in our walk with God, you tend to pray. You do it according to what you've been taught to pray, and the Lord understands that and He knows your heart.
The important thing is that you're trying, you are making an attempt to pray. Not just praying, but praying is talking. It's communicating, it's relating to the Lord. Even just praying the scriptures.
Ron:
I think you're making an awesome point. People start out really not knowing how to pray. Don't worry about making mistakes. Just jump in there, talk to the Lord. You don't yell at a 1-year-old when he's trying to walk. You're joyous.
The Lord loves that.
Ken:
I think it goes back to the fact that Jesus said it's impar important that I go.
Because if I go, I will send the helper, the one who walks alongside the one who will lead you. He will show you the way to do things. And I, I really believe that if a heart is open to God and very sincere before the Lord and is attempting to pray, the Lord will show him
Dale:
We learn how to pray for what He wants and not for what we want. Look to the Lord before you pray. Is this really what He wants? Are you wanting what He wants? And many times there's more time in seeking what He wants. We take it to Him in prayer.
Ken:
There's a deep level of humility I believe, that God is looking for in each one of us where we realize we don't know everything. In our seeking God we're opening our hearts and really more like Jesus said, saying, father, I don't know how to think about this thing.
I'm just laying it out before you. I want your will. I want to do what you want me to do, and it's more important than what I want.
Ron:
Talking about different aspects and how to position yourself before the Lord in prayer. I wanna also talk about the principle of persistence. We know that the Lord taught parables about this, about prayer, about going before the unjust judge. Even ask, knock, the asking and the seeking and the knocking is the in the imperative mood, which means you keep asking, you keep seeking, you keep knocking.
In other words, God's not answering you necessarily because He likes you or you're His best friend, but He's answering you sometimes because you're just plain old, persistent. There's something in that that the Lord's honors. And I think honestly, He honors it because of your faith. You know that He is gonna answer you.
You have that depth of relationship with him. Okay. I've prayed and I'm not seeing the answer, but I know You're hearing me and I know that You love me, and I know that the answer's already, yes, I'm gonna keep knocking on the door until I get my bread.
Ed:
When God wants you to pray to Him, think about the words that you're saying. Let there be a depth in your heart that's crying out for the things that you are asking. It is when you focus on your prayer and it hits you to the depth of your being. That's when God is gonna listen to you. He just doesn't want to hear words. He wants to hear your heart.
