Christian Devotional
By Christian Author Linda Wiggins-Edwards
Praying in the Spirit of God
What does it mean to pray in the Spirit of God? When we think about what this means, it will bring up a number of various questions. Questions that should, and will, really make you think about what it is that you believe about God, about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit. Questions about what we think it means to be a Christian. Questions about what it is that you think makes you a Christian. When we think about praying in the Spirit of God, we need to think about our faith, our spirituality, our beliefs, and our purpose. We need to ask ourselves what exactly do we think it means to pray in the Spirit of God? Why is it important that we pray in the Spirit? And how do we know if and when we are praying in the Spirit? Is it something that is learned, or is it innate? And lastly, we need to ask ourselves what more can we learn about God and about prayer, to ensure that we are praying in the Spirit of God every time we pray?
The first thing that we must understand about prayer is that it is a gift from God. God, through all of His infinite wisdom, knowledge and power, provided us with a means to be able to communicate with Him directly. God wants us to pray. God loves when we pray. Gods wants us to be able to speak to Him directly, and He wants to be able to speak to us directly. He gave us prayer because it allows each and every one of us to come into His Holy presence and share our innermost feelings with Him. We can come to God just as we are, with no pretense, no shame, and no fear, down on our knees and just dwell with Him in all of His glory. Through prayer, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are able to join together with God our Father and Jesus our Lord and Savior. Through prayer, God gets to know our heart and we get to know His heart and His will. Through prayer, we are able to feel God’s presence in us, through us, and around us. When we are truly able to pray in the Spirit of God, our heart and God’s heart become one.
Praying in the Spirit is something that all Christians must strive for. This is one of the greatest gifts that God provided us, and He wants us to receive it the way that it was intended to be received. When we learn to pray in the Spirit, this is when we are receiving the richness and fullness of God. This is when God will show us the boundlessness of his grace & mercy. This is when we hear God’s truth, see God’s beauty, feel God’s presence, and taste the sweet nectar of God’s Holy righteousness. Praying in the Spirit gives us strength, it gives us hope, it gives us peace, it gives us patience, it gives us faith, and it gives us power. As we continue on our spiritual journeys to become more Christ-like, constantly seeking God in prayer in everything we do, learning to pray to God the way Jesus prayed, loving our Father the way Jesus loves Him, and relentlessly working to increase His Heavenly Kingdom, this is when we will begin to see that we are praying in the Spirit of God.
When we learn to pray in the Spirit, it starts to become second nature to us. We depend on it, we thrive on it, and we can no longer live without it. We will get to the point where we pray about anything & everything. We will get to the point where we will always need to be connected to God, even if it’s just to say a quick breath prayer such as “Help me Lord” or “Thank you Jesus.” Oftentimes we will find ourselves praying without even realizing that we’re praying. This is due to the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. Romans 8: 26-27 tells us that “… the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” When God searches our hearts, His Spirit that resides within us, will intercede for us even when our minds are not quite aware of it yet. And for that, we ought to be thankful!!
As we continue to grow in our ability to pray in the Spirit of God, we will become so dependent on prayer that it becomes like an involuntary bodily function, like the beating of our hearts. Our heart beats because it must pump blood in order for us to live. However, we do not need to think about making it happen, nor do we need to do anything in order for it to happen, our heart just automatically beats on its own. It’s the same thing when we learn to pray in the Spirit. We will pray because we must pray in order to live, but we won’t need to think about making it happen, nor will we need to do anything extraordinary in order for it to happen. Our spirits will just automatically do it because we always feel the need to be connected to God. We will need prayer as much as we need air to breathe.
One thing that can never, ever be taken away from us is our ability to connect with God through our spirituality, our faith and our ability to pray. Never. We can make a conscious decision to give it away, however, but it can never be taken away. We can choose to bury it deep inside of us where we no longer believe that it exists. We can choose to become angry with God. We can choose to turn our backs to God. We can choose to move away from God. We can choose to test God. We can choose to curse God. We can choose to allow the devil to steal God from our hearts. We can even choose not to believe in God whatsoever. But we can never, ever have our ability to connect with God through our faith, spirituality and prayer be taken away from us. “…he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:17.
This is why God gave us prayer. This is what praying in the Spirit of God allows us to do – it helps strengthen and increase our spirituality and our faith because it allows us to come into God’s holy presence at any time, any place, for any reason, for any length of time and just dwell there. When we’re in God’s presence we can just take in all of His glory, just bask in His graciousness, just lift our eyes, our hearts and our souls to the One who created us, the one who is our Alpha and Omega, the one who gave His son to die for our transgressions, the One whose name is above all others in Heaven and on earth, the King of Kings, the great I Am, our Refuge, our Rock, our Redeemer, our Deliverer, our Beautiful Salvation, our Creator, our Heavenly Father, our Mighty, Mighty God! Thank you Jesus!!! Amen.
Written by Linda Wiggins-Edwards
Copyright 2011. All rights reserved.