Praying in the Spirit

Most Christians are familiar with Paul's command to "put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17)," but are less familiar with this key to doing so:
"Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end stay alert and always persevere in supplications for all the saints (6:18)."
What is praying in the Spirit? True, speaking in tongues is one form of praying the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:15), but not the only form. prayer in the Spirit is Spirit-directed prayer. But how can a believer know that her prayer is directed by the Spirit?

I learned what this means in youthful prayer experiments. When I was a college student, I went through a phase in which my prayer life seemed mechanical and impotent, So I made a dramatic decision: after the Sunday morning service, I would climb up the steps to the high steeple of our large old church, where there was a small Sunday school room. I would fast for lunch and instead spend most of the hours before the evening evangelistic service praying in the steeple. I had never before prayed for such a long period and I soon began to wonder if this was a good idea. I felt uncomfortable; my knees were sore; my praying was strained and forced and became repetitive as I ran out of words and wondered what I should be praying. This apparent failure hurt my pride, and so, I gutted it out until something remarkable began to happen after about 45 minutes: it was as if I felt the gentle breeze of the Spirit's presence and began to feel enveloped in divine love. Suddenly, the words just flowed effortlessly an spontaneously from my mind (words of praise, thanksgiving, petitions interspersed by a sense of being directed to enter periods of listening silence) and I felt a profound joy, praying in the Spirit for several hours. I took a break to finally catch a bite prior to the evening service. I think I had 3 of these all-afternoon prayer vigils.

Among my many petitions, I would pray for many conversions in the evening evangelistic service; and during our altar calls an unusually large number of people came forward to commit their lives to Christ. It was clear that my 3 prayer vigils helped unleash the convicting work of the Spirit. Decades later, I wonder what would happen if my weekly prayer group became connected to a church that conducts evening evangelistic services and collectively fasted and prayed in the Spirit for long hours as I did on those 3 holy occasions in my youth. As it is, our prayer group often experiences miracles and other obvious answers to prayer.

Paul tells us that to pray in the Spirit we must "stay alert" and "always persevere in supplications." Staying alert is essential in spiritual warfare. Many Christians let their minds wander during extended prayer sessions and drift off into tired daydreams. The need to persevere in supplications implies that longer prayer vigils are more effective than shorter sessions. Why, you ask, doesn't God get my message the first time I express it? Do I need to nag a reluctant God into compliance with my request? Hardly! I can take considerable time to shut distractions out for an adequate prayer focus and to deepen one's longing intensely enough to establish a deep enough connection with God for prayers to become effective.








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One thing I've always wondered is this: If we can see a difference between praying or singing in the spirit, as opposed to non spirit praying or singing-how does walking in the spirit look different than non spirit walking?

Your question can be answered in 2 ways:
(1) Most Christians mistake walking in the Spirit as a banal general reference to the practical application of Scripture to our lives. But Pauls' theology is far more mystical and experientially empowering than most believers realize. Paul uses the expression walking in the Spirit interchangeably with being "led by the Spirit (see Galatians 5:15-18)."

(2) Paul's most neglected spiritual priority is expressed in 1 Corinthians 4:19-20:

"I will come to you, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the (theological) talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God depends not on talk, but on power."

It is not enough just to offer mentail assent to the Gospel and then then simply accept by faith that one has received the Spirit. Paul rebukes this attitude by reminding us of his expectations during his initial presentation of the Gospel to the Corinthians:

"My speech and my words were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of words, but on the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)."

Believers who simply accept by faith that they have the indwelling Spirit and just strive to live out principles of discipleship are warping the empowering experiential dimension of the faith! It is just such a watered down churchianity that Paul rebukes thus:

"Are you so foolish?: Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Have you experienced so much for nothing?,,,,Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the Law or by your believing what you heard (Galatians 3:3-5)?"

Paul expects beiievers to have experienced the Spirit in such a way that they can be mystically led by the Spirit in their choices and in that sense "walk in the Spirit."

So if i pray the Lords prayer. Is it in the spirit ore not?
Is it less spirituell then a prayer in tongues?
I believe as children of God our prayers are anyway in the Spirit.
But we are not able to recognize it.

Thanks for your answer, sir. I think you might be misapplying the Galatians quote, however. Acts 15 makes it clear that Paul needed to get on Jewish Christians for trying to require gentile converts to be circumcised and keep the old testament law. I believe that's why he was getting on the Galatians. I will consider your version however, and study it.

Your point about Paul's primary concern in Galatians is of course correct. But Paul secondarily wants to make the same point that he makes in 1 Corinthians--that to be regenerated by the Spirit is to have an experience of power, which Paul alternately characterizes as both "experience" and "miracles (Galatians 3:3-5)" and as "a demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor 2:4-5)." Jesus teaches that "no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born [again]...of the Spirit (John 3:5)." But in 1 Corinthians 4:19-20 Paul warns that entering the kingdom of God depends not on "talk" (i.e. faith-based doctrinal claims), but on "power" from the Spirit that Paul can investigate and "find out" whether professing believers have experienced.

At baptism in the early church, hands were laid on the new believer to receive the Holy Spirit and the Spirit was then experienced in an unspecified way. But the imparted Spirit was soon viewed as an automatic result of professing one's faith because, I think, church leaders didn't want to deal with the uncertain and varied subjectivity of the Spirit's experienced takeover. The greater danger is that the believer never receives the Holy Spirit at all! In that case, the intended experience of an intimate personal relationship with Christ gets reduced to a lifeless part of the new believer's self-image--a mere belief an not a reality based on experience. I'm not denying that converts commonly experience the Spirit in some way--perhaps "the fruit of the Spirit." I'm saying that churches become spiritually dead precisely because the mysticism of the experience of conversion gets overlooked. Thus, when I baptized new converts, I never merely said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," as if that automatically happened. Rather I laid hand on believers and prayed that they would receive the Holy Spirit.

I certainly think that most churches need to be somewhere closer to the middle of the two extremes.

A spirit is not some wind or some force that takes control of a human; a spirit is a conscious mind or at least greatly connected to the mind and the mind is nothing more than an understanding and in matters God, it is precisely the understanding of truth because God is truth. So when Paul says 'pray in the spirit', he just means in whatever you do, know God, it has nothing to do with movement of any muscles especially the tongue muscles.

Another issue is 'prayer'. Prayer is nothing more than a need and God already knows your needs before you even open your mouth. He knew your needs before your parents were born.

Q. What happens to those people who don't have the ability to speak? those that are incapacitated somehow, can they pray in the spirit also as per your understanding or their inabilities confine them to hell fire forever?

All of the prayers throughout the bible are of the Spirit revealing Himself .It is praying in tongues prophesying. And yes his ways are past finding out.

Today God is no longer bringing new prophecy to confirm we have the privileged and responsibility to search the scripture and offer our best interpretation keeping ourselves open if change is needed..

ff to 19;35

Noose: A spirit is not some wind or some force that takes control of a human; a spirit..."

On the contrary, the Hebrew word for "Spirit" means "wind." and was experienced as a supernatural "wind" in the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 2 and in the experience of Spirit baptism that I describe in my thread on speaking in tongues. Note Jesus' wind analogy in John 3:8 when He explains the role of the Spirit in the new birth. Indeed, there is a unanimous consensus among modern bible scholars that the work of the Holy Spirit in the NT refers to God's saving power in action. So that claim is not even controversial. And don't confuse ordinary prayer with praying in the Spirit, which means praying with the Spirit's guiding direction.

Noose: So when Paul says 'pray in the spirit', he just means in whatever you do, know God, it has nothing to do with movement of any muscles especially the tongue muscles...Q. What happens to those people who don't have the ability to speak? those that are incapacitated somehow, can they pray in the spirit also as per your understanding or their inabilities confine them to hell fire forever?"
I
Irrelevant here! I'm talking about Paul's doctrine of praying in the Spirit, not specifically about speaking in tongues. Private prayer berbaly expresses our praise, thanksgiving, and petitions either in silent thought or out loud.

Moose: "Another issue is 'prayer'. Prayer is nothing more than a need and God already knows your needs before you even open your mouth."
You can find no biblical justification for that claim. In fact, Jesus makes your point precisely in the context of warning about the wrong way to pray (Matthew 6:8)!

When praying one needs to go to ones prayer closet and talk to ones father in secret and he will reward you.

When the pastor prays in church this often does not happen, what happens is he prays with lots of long words in front of others but then just moves on to the next thing he talks about without stopping for breath. There doesnt seem to be any listening time to hear from God! Am talking about a typical Sunday service and I have seen this in many different churches. He also sometimes doesnt bother to lay hands on anyone. Another thing iVe noticed is that he might pray a really looong prayer, and nobody in the congregation says amen. How can that prayer be answered when nobody agrees? We are meant to be gathered in His name! Not merely listening to someone elses prayers.

Consciousness or mind is immaterial and there's no way to describe it and the bible has chosen material things to describe the mind of God; the bible uses the breathe of God or water or wind as terms to describe the spirit who is otherwise indescribable.

And like i have said before, doing anything in the spirit is nothing more than having an understanding of the truth or knowing God.
The spirit of God or understanding God can not make anyone act in a funny way.
Matt 6 says the Father already knows our needs so we don't need to use many words and repetitions.

Noose: "...doing anything in the spirit is nothing more than having an understanding of the truth or knowing God.
The spirit of God or understanding God can not make anyone act in a funny way.
Matt 6 says the Father already knows our needs so we don't need to use many words and repetitions.[/QUOTE]

To learn how demonstrably false that is, you need to read through my new evolving thread on speaking in tongues.

It might be helpful to quote the 3 relevant NT texts on praying in the Spirit in al confessional way:
(1) "Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18)."
(a) Context--Putting on each piece of "the full armor of God:" So ordinary prayer that our minds direct may be inadequate to deal with the forces of evil arrayed against us and our loved ones.
(b) "at all times:" We must pray in the Spirit daily. I fall short here because I only pray in the Spirit in heroic moments of great resolve!
(c) "keep alert and always persevere:" The implication is that it can take a long time to shift one's consciousness into the receptive mode of Sprit-directed prayer. Unfortunately, that's why I pray in the Spirit so infrequently; I normally lack the discipline for long prayer sessions. Yet I long for revival. But how real is that longing, I ask? Agents of history's greatest revivals prayed in the Spirit for long hours of angnizing passionate intercession!

(2) Some posters have tried to water down praying in the Spirit by overlooking the fact that this is Spirit-controlled guided prayer.
Our mind does not control the stream of thought. We learn this from the specific case of praying in tongues:
"I will pray with the Spirit, but I will pray with the mind also (1 Corinthians 14:15)."
But as already noted, one need not pray in tongues to pray in the Spirit.

(3) Praying in the Spirit upgrades the effectiveness of our intercessory prayer because the Spirit compensates for our ignorance of God's will for specific situations at specific times:
"The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don't know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groans too deep for words...The Sprit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Romans *:26-27)."

The essence of the Christian life is a vibrant, living personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Prayer is the primary way that relationship is sustained and developed. This means that prayer must be a 2-way communication and that we must listen for God's response as much as we talk at Him. Praying in the Spirit is an important way this relationship is expressed. When the Spirit guides our prayers, He is intimately bonding with us.

There is no mention of speaking in tongues in Ephesians 6:18. In my OP, I describe how I found myself praying in the Spirit for hours after a 45 minutes of discomfort on my knees as I struggled to find new words to pray. At no time did I then speak in tongues. But speaking in tongues is a type of praying in the Spirit (so 1 Corinthians 14:15) and can make the requisite surrender to the Spirit easier for praying in the Spirit in English.

Am coming back to this thread
Because our church has started praying more, and we had a prayer meeting last night

Our pastor gave us some 'tips' on effective prayer. Instead of just jumping right in, so we ended up 30 minutes of prayer time instead of an hour. And some of that was worship time too.

Here is where I think we might be going wrong...when our prayer is time bound. When someone tries to control it and fit it into a schedule and then says well our prayer time is up. We have to go home now and lock the church up.

However, we have made a start. Our hearts must be clean before God before anything else. We must humble ourselves. What I found different from a regular prayer session is that we spent time listening to God and there was a lot less personal requests but more a sense of His presence as He cleansed our hearts.