Praying in the Spirit

My Journey of Faith Part 15

Supplication: "déēsis" to be in want and praying specificlly for a deep personal and urgent need. There can be no rote in this prayer.

Praying in the Spirit Begins by Living by the Spirit

If the truth be told, our introduction to the D.C. Church was very friendly but less than a perfect fit. It was over a year before my wife and I decided to cut out a ministry that became our own. I left a community group and started to disciple men, and my wife opened our house for all forms of hospitality. Right from the start, we knew we were not in the Church to be served but to serve. Reality check: There is no other way but by the will of God.

Praying in the Spirit Produces Laborers for the Harvest

From the beginning, in the men's study, we briefly introduced our text and then opened the room for discussion. The discussion led to prayer requests, and we prayed for one another as we went around the room. Even though many people came to D.C. for three years on average, there was always a welcoming and cohesive feel to our men's group. As some men moved on to different pastures in their careers, others accepted the responsibility of helping to lead.

Praying in the Spirit Leads Others to do the Same

From the time I was crushed in Spirit under the weight of my sin, having come to Christ six years earlier, I understood the necessity of knowing Jesus more intimately through prayer. While attending Elohim Bible Institute, I was introduced to Edward Mckendree Bounds and his book Power Through Prayer. I learned then and have had it confirmed for the last fifty years that nothing genuinely great for the Kingdom of God can be accomplished without effectual and fervent prayer.

Knowing the truth about prayer, I wanted to raise the men's awareness of praying in the Spirit as a gathering of believers. Anyone who has gone to the hospital for loved ones or been part of a seeming tragedy knows what it means to pray by supplication. However, to do so as a planned event is something else.

Praying in the Spirit Takes Time

After leading the study for probably ten years and spending much time meditating on my book about Jesus Christ, I was led and felt moved to spend more time praying with the men. Some stayed at the Church and with me for a good while. Before I left, a brother and I had a heart-to-heart talk, and he told me he intended to come to join my group for about a year and move on. However, we were together for probably ten years.

When I presented the idea of coming together to pray, a couple of questions were asked. One, Why 3 AM? Two, Why so long? We talk about becoming more like Jesus, but I ask you, do we intend to be like Him? We are told in Mark 1:35, "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there." Again, in Luke 6:12, "It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God." If we want to be like Him, we should do what He did within reason.

We arrived at 3 AM, and I shared for about fifteen minutes. I shared that WE are here TO PRAY for those things about which GOD CARES.

I counted dollars while God counted crosses,

I counted gains while he counted losses,

I counted my worth by the things gained in store,

He sized me up by the scars that I bore,

I coveted honors and sought for degrees,

He wept as He counted the hours I spent on my knees,

I never knew til one day at the grave how vain the things we spend our life to save.

• As we pray, we are concerned about the posture of our heart and not our body.

• We pray to God and not one another, to be heard by Him and not each other.

  
  

A few calculations:

If we pray for four minutes 4 times, that will be four hours & fifteen minutes. We began at about 3:15 AM and finished about 9:30. Before we decided that we would spend this early morning in prayer a dear a dear brother asked me, "How many times will we do this?" As soon as we finished, he lifted his head and said, "We must do this again."

WE PRAY THE SCRIPTURES: Let the Bible lead us in our prayer.

I started us off by reading a portion of the Bible. The men followed my lead.

WHY ARE WE HERE?

• We pray to God for His divine pleasure and not for one another.

• We listen and confirm one another; we do not pray for one another's approval.

• We pray for God to change us.

• We pray to move the hand that moves the world.

• We come together because, in the economy of God, numbers matter.

"How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up?" Deuteronomy 32:30

We pray for God to change us

1. To pray effectively

2. To pray continuously

• If you get stiff and want to get up, do what you feel led to.

• If you want to open your eyes, you are free to do so?

• We have guidelines, but we should never feel restrained.

  
  

• We have come together to worship God for who and what He is. Our thoughts Should be on God alone, with no thought of ourselves.

• We have come together to thank God for what He has done while realizing life is not all about us but about Him.

• We have come together to confess our sins without regard to what others might think. In this place, we are all sinners saved by grace.

• We have come together to intercede for one another, for the Church worldwide, that revival might spring in our hearts and the hearts of brothers and sisters wherever they might be.

PRAYER FOCUS

• We do not pray to hear ourselves talk and imagine ourselves spiritually great!

• We do not pray to follow some formal manner of dialogue, whether it is Praise, Thanksgiving, Repentance, or Intercession. We pray to know God better.