Day: May 14, 2023

Difference between praying in the spirit and praying in the tongues:

Praying always in the Spirit with all kinds of prayers and requests, and being alert for this with all perseverance and requests for all saints. (Ephesians 6:18)

 praying in the Spirit and praying in tongues refer to separate, though related things. Not all Christians have the gift of tongues (speaking in a language they don’t know).  However, Paul tells all to pray in the Spirit, i.e., pray from your innermost being and not merely your head.

 So praying in the Spirit and praying in tongues are prayers that originate from the spirit of the person praying.  Praying in the Spirit relies on the Holy Spirit to help, whereas praying with the spirit (or in tongues) is possible because of the Holy Spirit. Both are spiritual prayers, but one is a special case with regard to the language spoken.

Our spirit is engaged with God’s Spirit and He speaks out things in prayer that could never otherwise have occurred to us. These are not prepared prayers but spontaneous, Spirit-led utterances in our known language. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would “show us things to come” (John 16:13), so at times such utterance may take the form of praying for future events understood only in the infinite mind of God. It could include prophetic utterances speaking forth the perfect will of God into certain situations, or proclamations of God’s Kingdom and will, establishing them in the spiritual realm.

Such utterance proceeds from the same well as the supernatural utterance in tongues. At times the Holy Spirit may prompt you to pray in tongues, and then directly from the same flow bring forth interpretation of what has just been said, thus establishing it in the heart and mind of the believer, and affecting God’s will in the spiritual realm.

Such prayer is powerful and carries great authority. We are no longer ‘asking’. When spiritual utterance in our known language begins to flow from our inner man, the answer is coming forth. It carries the authority of the One who is speaking, the Spirit Himself. It may include the declaration of Scripture, or the proclamation of known or unknown truths, yet is endued with creative power; it has the stamp of divine endorsement.Hence every believer is encouraged to press into this as well as other kinds of prayer, knowing that the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor 3:17), and that He is looking for someone who will yield their heart and voice to Him in order that He can birth God’s purposes in to the earth.  Such prayer is speaking under divine inspiration just like the gift of prophecy, and is open for all believers who will work with the Holy Spirit in the realm of prayers.

 Tongues has many benefits for the believer who exercises the gift. It is not just a one-time manifestation, but a permanent gift given when the believer who receives baptism in the Spirit, and is thereafter at the believer’s disposal. Tongues can be exercised at the will of the believer. We do not have to wait for a special anointing to come upon us; we can open our spirit at any moment and speak forth in our prayer language.

Benefits of tongues include the following (the benefits listed are not in any order of importance):

• The ability to speak directly to the Father (deeper intimacy)
• The ability to build yourself up spiritually
• The ability to worship God in Spirit and truth
• The ability to pray the perfect will of God (even when it is unknown)
• The ability to engage in spiritual warfare at a higher level
• The ability to speak and call forth God’s prophetic purposes
• The ability to release spiritual refreshment
• The ability to operate in the spiritual realm with greater accuracy and effectiveness: human spirit, not the mind. They can be in a human language unknown to the speaker, or in a language not of this world.

Paul refers to tongues as being either the tongues of men or the tongues of angels. Both are supernaturally inspired and carry significance in the spiritual world:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels…” (1Cor 13:1)

“There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without significance.” (1 Cor 14:10 NKJV)

 The Scriptures clearly define a major category of ‘praying in the Spirit’ as praying in tongues. Consider the following Scriptures:

“praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—” (Ephesians 6:18 NKJV)

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

“For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.”   (1 Corinthians 14:2 NKJV)

“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” (1 Cor 14:14-15 NKJV)Tongues allows the disciple to pray in a manner which brings forth and prays according to the perfect will of God. It allows us to harmonise our prayers with the prayers of Christ, through His Spirit, and intercede on behalf of the saints. Yielding to the Spirit at this basic level often carries the praying believer into the deeper levels of utterance

“So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.”  (Rom 8:26 AMP)

At times the Lord by His Spirit may roar and cry out through us in holy indignation against His enemies and ours:

“The Lord will go forth like a mighty man, He will rouse up His zealous indignation and vengeance like a warrior; He will cry, yes, He will shout aloud, He will do mightily against His enemies.” (Is 42:13 AMP)

The disciple must learn to yield to many flows from the inner man, including aggressive flows that devastate the enemy, and destroy demonic bondages.S peaking in tongues is a vocal miracle. So, no matter how often we do it, we must never cease to reverence it. We must be careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit by flippantly turning our mouth on automatic pilot, chattering away in tongues while our minds wander off to the baseball field or the shopping mall. Such a heartless manifestation of tongues is not only unprofitable for us, it is rude…

…(many) have the mistaken idea that because our minds don’t understand the words we are saying, it makes no difference what we do with them. Nothing could be further from the truth. For tongues to be the genuine form of communication God designed it to be, we must have our hearts and minds hooked up to Him. Mentally we may not be able to grasp exactly what we are saying but we can maintain an attitude of reverence and appreciation for God, turning our attention toward Him as we speak.

^{Making that one adjustment alone will change the way many of us now use tongues. For if we must employ our whole selves – heart, mind and mouth – in the effort, we won’t be so apt to resort to tongues simply because we’re too lazy to put together a prayer with our understanding.”}

Prayer:

Lord help us to pray in the spirit with understanding and truth, & also give us the gift of speaking in tongues. We understand both are important Thank you for teaching us this valuable lesson of effective and fervent prayer.Help us to build your kingdom on earth.. Amen hallelujah.

Sol.Celin Portia

KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD OF GOD

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Psalms 119:105 NKJV

The Word is light to our path and so we should have the knowledge of  the Word. When we lack the knowledge of the word we get misguided by false prophets.

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Matthew 7:16-17 NIV

Jesus is warning people against false prophets. They misguide people with their dreams and visions and people are easily carried away by their stage performance. Recently I saw a video of a performance on the stage; a so called  famous spiritual leader waved his hands with a great shout and people were falling down. He continued doing that several times, shouting ” take it, take it, and people kept falling and behaving hysterically. It’s explained to be anointing. Has Jesus done like this? What’s the purpose of giving and receiving this sort of anointing? In the Bible we have seen people convulsing and twisting and wiggling themselves when evil spirits left them. What is the spirituality of such stage performances and the resultant falling, rolling and wiggling?

People throng around such heroes and look forward to the next stage show to be anointed. And we find that such famous leaders are extraordinarily rich and influential persons who claim to serve Christ. When Judas came to betray Christ some people who were with him fell down.

Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

John 18:6 NKJV

And when Jesus was on the mount  and He appeared in His Glory, as He transfigured the disciples fell down.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12 NKJV

These performers might be claiming  they have power from these above verses wrongly quoting and interpreting these verses to the people.

Prophet Ezekiel speaks the Word from God:-

The conspiracy of her prophets and Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, so that I am profaned among them. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken.

Ezekiel 22:25-26, 28 NKJV

Today also these things are happening and people do not realise their traps. All these because we lack knowledge of the Word of God.

Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. Matthew 22:29 NKJV

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6 NKJV

People lack knowledge, of the Word of God and so are victimized by false prophets and false spiritual leaders. Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. Psalms 1:1-3 NKJV

So, delight in His Word and you will prosper.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

Psalms 19:7-8 NKJV

Prayer:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Sol.Salomi Kurian