What is the Purpose of Prayer?…What does it mean to Pray in the Spirit?
I was going to continue the Holy Spirit series but I have been compelled to write about the power of prayer. The Holy Spirit has put it on my heart to talk about the seriousness and effectiveness of prayer.
I noticed that in our world, the word prayer has truly lost its meaning. Many cultures pray to idols, or to other spirits. Or worse yet….Some pray to some sort of higher power.
Because of this, society has diminished the seriousness of prayer. People love to throw this around; “I will pray for you.” People that have no relationship with God whatsoever have broken the true meaning of what prayer is.
Yesterday, I was walking faced with a few concerns and issues that had surfaced in my life. As I was walking, I was thinking of how little I truly pray in my life….I started to be convicted by the Holy Spirit. I started to think, was there something in my life that was keeping me from a healthy prayer life?
As I started to explore the answer in my head, I turned on Praise 106.5…There was a sermon on by Greg Laurie (famous evangelist). Ironically, the topic he was discussing was prayer. I was stopped in my tracks! Did God really put this on my heart to show me something? I don’t believe in chance, or in coincidences.
Growing up I have always had this sort of expectation that prayer was a super formal thing. I used to think that the only way God hears you is if you bow your head, get on your knees and close your eyes….I actually would feel guilty if I opened my eyes…or if I raised my head.
The truth is, there is no one right way to pray. The Bible says;
17And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints. 19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, divine utterance may be given me, so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:18).
We see Paul saying here pray in “every kind of prayer.” What does he mean by every kind of prayer?…Well there are many ways to pray. You can pray silently, you can pray out loud…you can pray in secret…you just need to pray all the time.
Many people think prayer has to be this formal thing that happens when we stand in front of God and there are 5-10 steps to take…and there are even prayers in the Bible that tell you how to pray.
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.11 Give us this day our daily bread.12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matt. 6:9).
This prayer given by Jesus himself just shows us what God wants from us in a general sense. If you read further in Ephesians you will see the verse “pray in the Spirit”…what is Paul trying to say here? Is he trying to tell us to pray in tongues? I have heard many people claim that’s what Paul is saying, he wants people to pray in tongues. The truth is, there is not a direct correlation in the Bible anywhere between praying in the Spirit and a direct association with tongues. When a person is filled with the Spirit, he prays in the Spirit.
When a person grows spiritually and his walk with God strengthens, the Holy Spirit will help guide his prayer, for we often times do not know what we need but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us…
There are three verses in the Bible that speaks about praying in the Spirit. First Corinthians 14:15 says, “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.” Ephesians 6:18 says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Jude 20 says, “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” So, what exactly does it mean to pray in the Spirit?
The Greek word translated “pray in” can have several different meanings. It can mean “by means of,” “with the help of,” “in the sphere of,” and “in connection to.” Praying in the Spirit does not refer to the words we are saying. Rather, it refers to how we are praying. Praying in the Spirit is praying according to the Spirit’s leading. It is praying for things the Spirit leads us to pray for. Romans 8:26 tells us, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
Some, based on 1 Corinthians 14:15, equate praying in the Spirit with praying in tongues. Discussing the gift of tongues, Paul mentions “pray with my spirit.” First Corinthians 14:14 states that when a person prays in tongues, he does not know what he is saying, since it is spoken in a language he does not know. Furthermore, no one else can understand what is being said, unless there is an interpreter (1 Corinthians 14:27-28). In Ephesians 6:18, Paul instructs us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” How are we to pray with all kinds of prayers and requests and pray for the saints, if no one, including the person praying, understands what is being said? Therefore, praying in the Spirit should be understood as praying in the power of the Spirit, by the leading of the Spirit, and according to His will, not as praying in tongues.
Also, if you actually refer back to my Holy Spirit topic you will see me mention the word Spirit and spirit. They are referring to two different things. Spirit is the Holy Spirit and spirit is our spirit. The little and big “s” play a huge role in what Paul is trying to say. In Ephesians Paul says; pray in the Spirit (big S) with all kinds of prayers and requests. What he is saying here….Well if we pray for requests we ought to know what we are asking for. We better know what those requests are. In Corinthians 14:13-25, the verse states:
13 For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. 16 Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? 17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.
In this context what Paul is saying is; 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
Notice the small “s” in spirit. He is referring to our heart (our spirit)…. that our spirit will not be fruitful, so when you praise God in the Spirit (big S) the praise must be fruitful- meaning it has to have purpose and edify the church.
What, then, is praying in tongues, and how is it different than speaking in tongues? First Corinthians 14:13-17 indicates that praying in tongues is also to be interpreted. As a result, it seems that praying in tongues was offering a prayer to God. This prayer would minister to someone who spoke that language, but would also need to be interpreted so that the entire body could be edified.
This interpretation does not agree with those who view praying in tongues as a prayer language. This alternate understanding can be summarized as follows: praying in tongues is a personal prayer language between a believer and God (1 Corinthians 13:1) that a believer uses to edify himself (1 Corinthians 14:4). This interpretation is unbiblical for the following reasons:
1) How could praying in tongues be a private prayer language if it is to be interpreted (1 Corinthians 14:13-17)?
2) How could praying in tongues be for self-edification when Scripture says that the spiritual gifts are for the edification of the church, not the self (1 Corinthians 12:7)?
3) How can praying in tongues be a private prayer language if the gift of tongues is a “sign to unbelievers” (1 Corinthians 14:22)?
4) The Bible makes it clear that not everyone possesses the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:11, 28-30). How could tongues be a gift for self-edification if not every believer can possess it? Do we not all need to be edified?
The reason I emphasized not everyone possesses the gift of tongues, because in Corinthians 12: we see that the Spirit gives people gifts based on how He wills-
1 Cor. 12:7-11, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.8For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. 11But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
1 Cor. 12:29-30, “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? 30Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” (This is a rhetorical question by the way, and the answer is obviously NO!…Not everyone will possess the same gifts)
So if tongues was a prayer language and it was given to everyone, Paul wouldn’t have stressed how the body of Christ possess different gifts. Would it be fair to anyone if only a selected few got the gift to have a prayer language and others didn’t…? No…of course not…all gifts are given to the church to edify the church and not the individual. Gifts are for stewardship (to serve others in the body of Christ not to serve yourself).
How Does the Spirit Help Us in Prayer?
1. It is He who introduces us into the presence of the Father. “For through Him we…have our access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). The picture behind access is that of a court official who introduces people Praying in the Spirit who desire an audience with the king. This is exactly what the Spirit does for us.
2. As “the Spirit of grace and of supplication” (Zech. 12:10), He overcomes our reluctance, working in us the desire to pray. He graciously yet faithfully reveals to us our true heart-needs, and He leads us to seek their fulfillment in prayer.
3. He imparts a sense of sonship and acceptance that creates freedom and confidence in the presence of God. “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal 4:6). Children are uninhibited in the presence of an understanding and loving father, and so may we be in our prayers.
4. He helps us in the ignorance of our minds and in the infirmities of our bodies, as well as in the maladies of the soul. “In the same way the Spirit helps our weaknesses; for we do not know how to pray as we should” (Rom. 8:26), or as it is in the King James Version, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” We can count on the Spirit’s aid in guiding us into the will of God through illumining Scripture to us and through stimulating and directing our mental processes. He also purifies our desires and redirects them towards the will of God, for He alone knows and can interpret God’s will and purpose. “The thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11). He also helps by improving our motivation and inspiring confidence and faith in a loving Father.
5. He takes our faltering and imperfect prayers, adds to them the incense of the merits of Christ, and puts them in a form acceptable to our heavenly Father. “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne” (Rev 8:3). He takes our inarticulate groanings and infuses the right meaning into them.
6. He lays special burdens of prayer on the believer who is sensitively walking in fellowship with Him. Such a burden, intolerable at times, was laid on the prophets; often they could get relief only through prolonged and earnest prayer. Daniel 10:2-3 refers to one such experience: “In those days I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all, until the entire three weeks were completed.” But the answer came at the proper time—God’s time. When He lays such prayer-burdens on the hearts of His children, He intends to answer the prayer through their intercessions. He will impart the strength to pray through until the answer comes. The foregoing considerations would lead us to conclude that to be able to pray prevailingly, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. “We are never really men of prayer in the best sense, until we are filled with the Holy Spirit.” This necessity is emphasized by J. Stuart Holden:
Here is the secret of prevailing prayer, to pray under a direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, whose petitions for us and through us are always according to the Divine purpose, and hence certain of answer. “Praying in the Holy Ghost is but co-operating with the will of God, and such prayer is always victorious. How many Christians there are who cannot pray, and who seek by effort, resolve, joining prayer circles, etc., to cultivate in themselves the “holy art of intercession,” and all to no purpose. Here for them and for all is the only secret of a real prayer life “Be filled with the Spirit,” who is “the Spirit of grace and supplication.”
I would like an opinion for my way of thinking, when you touched the topic prayer with the Holy Spirit. You mentioned that from scripture “to another different kinds of tongues;” have you heard of gift when person will get a gift know different human language without learning the language? I heard from parents a lot. In that section after each comma, a different gift is mention, and the way I see it that those two gifts are separated. I support my opinion from Old Testament, I forgot where is written but it says that when a time will come God will give everyone a Holly Spirit. And if you saying that not everyone will speak on different tongs, than how individual can know they have Holly Spirit.
When I will get an answer from you I will have ready the scripted where is written about Holly Spirit For everyone, who will desired.
Well, those are all good questions. If you are suggesting that the gift of tongues and tongues when you pray are different you are mistaken. The Bible never compares the two in any given event, it actually talks about the gift in all the same context. The Holy Spirit is given to someone that repents.
“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38).
Jesus said the Spirit will provide us with help and guidance (John 14:16; John 14:26; John 16:13). One of the most important evidences is that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). Godly love is described in more detail in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Though we all fall short, a Christian should see this fruit growing in his or her life.
Paul lists other important fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Christians will examine themselves to see how much this fruit is growing, and will regularly ask God to provide His gracious Spirit to help them grow more.
Some mistakenly think that what is called “speaking in tongues” proves whether you have the Holy Spirit. For the truth of the matter, see “What Is Speaking in Tongues?”
It is God’s plan for us to repent, be baptized, receive His Spirit and then be transformed in mind to become more and more like Him. By praying for, yielding to and stirring up the Spirit, we will see the spiritual growth that assures us God’s Spirit is working in us.
Several remarkable miracles occurred on the Day of Pentecost in A.D. 31. First there was a sound from heaven “as of a rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2). “Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them” (verse 3).
Speaking in tongues Acts 2
Then, according to Acts 2:4, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and “began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” So, what was this speaking in tongues? What exactly occurred? The Greek word for “tongues” is glossa. As it is used in Acts 2:4, glossa refers to “the supernatural gift of speaking in another language without its having been learnt” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1997, “Tongue (-s)”).
“In Acts 2:4-13, the circumstances are recorded from the viewpoint of the hearers; to those in whose language the utterances were made it appeared as a supernatural phenomenon” (ibid.). Verse 8 demonstrates how miraculous this was: “And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?”
So, the miracle that day simply meant that every member of the audience—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Romans, Cretans and Arabs, etc.—heard the apostles speaking in his or her own native language “the wonderful works of God,” regardless of what language the apostles spoke.
Speaking in tongues in 1 Corinthians 14
Many years after this event took place in Jerusalem, some of the members in Corinth had been given the gift to speak in different tongues (languages). However, instead of using the gift to benefit and serve others, they became proud of it. The apostle Paul then wrote 1 Corinthians 14 to address this problem. In verse 9, Paul reminded them: “Unless you utter by the tongue [here glossa refers simply to the organ of speech] words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken?”
Later, in verses 27 and 28, Paul gave this instruction: “If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church.”
So the language spoken in church has to be of value to the hearers. To illustrate the point, an English-speaking audience would not benefit from someone speaking French, unless they also knew the French language or there was an interpreter.
Applying Paul’s instructions about speaking in tongues today
Therefore, members of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association (sponsors of this website), do not speak at church in unintelligible “languages” that no one else understands or benefits from. However, some ministers and members do speak in different known languages such as in French and Spanish, and there are translators as well.
The gift of “speaking in tongues” (languages) is not the criterion that proves whether one has the Holy Spirit. There are other spiritual gifts, such as the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge (1 Corinthians 12:8), that come through God’s Holy Spirit. Also, the fruit—the result of having God’s Spirit—is that one will display love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in his or her life (Galatians 5:22-23).