Praying in the Spirit
“For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” (1Tim. 4:5).
A text has been a puzzle to me for years and now I think I understand it better. It is the following:
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:26,27).
I’ve often heard it explained that we just need to pray and the Spirit wafts our prayers up to Jesus, transforms them and expresses those prayers in heavenly sinless language that is acceptable to Jesus, who then presents them to the Father.
This concept is all wrong, very wrong! It excludes the word of God from its rightful place in our communion with God and leads right into pagan worship.
Jesus said, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (Jn. 4:21-23).
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (Jn. 6:63).
In both of these messages, we read of a spirituality without pretense. Genuine connection with God requires honest acceptance of Him and His character.
We cannot accomplish anything honest or true of ourselves, and the only thing genuine we can produce is rebellion and sin. Always and forever we need a crutch in order to do good, until we are welcomed into the heavenly kingdom. We can't even pray right without His assistance.
How can God accept our prayer without His kind of faith, the faith of Jesus? “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth.” (Jn. 9:31). “According to your faith be it unto you.” (Matt. 9:29). But how does the faith of Jesus come? We all know that answer. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:17).
So then, if prayer and meditation are to be full of faith and acceptable to God, they must be infused with His mind, His scriptures.
Interestingly, in his next breath Paul writes, “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” (vs. 18). In other words, through the Hebrew Scriptures, the source of faith went out to the whole planet. Especially did it find a place in Jewish homes. But why then did they reject their Messiah? How could it be that “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not,” “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not”? (Jn. 1:10,11).
Obviously there was a disconnect somewhere. Even among the Gentiles, in the misty past, they had had the oral word of God and the recent, still evident marks of the worldwide flood. But they fell away from that light and apostatized. Open rebellion set in and Nimrod rose to the top of oppression and false religion. Over time Satan quickly developed from that what we see today as modern paganism.
Something similar must have happened to the Jews as well. Otherwise, they would not have been so blind as to miss their Deliverer. As it is written, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Rom. 10: 16). “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2Cor. 4:3,4).
What was the result of losing faith in the word of God? “He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.” (Ez. 8:13,14).
When we lose the light of truth, Satan leads us to worship the wrong person. But that is not all. When we turn away from the truth and its convicting arrows, we walk among dry places. Our souls are dried up for joy and love and hope. Hedonism cannot satisfy us; neither can asceticism. We need something to help us unburden our hearts, but God is the only one who can do this in righteousness.
If we continue to turn away from the voice of His Spirit, then we finally go so far as to seek other sources of peace. And the devil is ready on hand to offer us his substitute. He offers a religion that lets us express our sorrows without having to sorrow for our sins. His best deterrent to repentance is a counterfeit worship that requires no repentance.
He speaks to the soul, saddened in self-pity because it refuses to surrender self to the Spirit of God, and he pets it and says, “Just cry out to the air. Weep; weep on my lap, my child. I am your savior; I sit on the sides of the north. After a few tears you will feel all better again.” This is the whole basis for Mariolatry. It has been the whole basis of paganism since the fall of man—a worship apart from and rejecting the word of God.
Satan was prophesied to do just that, and in an especially sophisticated way in the end.
“And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.” “And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” (Dan. 8:24,25,12). “He shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” (Dan. 11:21).
This is the “son of perdition” Paul forewarned of, “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2Thess. 2:4).
Have you seen this lately? I have. It’s growing by leaps and bounds. This is the foundation for the Catholic invented Charismatic movement, of praise songs, of being “slain in the Spirit,” and of speaking and praying in glossolalia.
And how does all this travesty begin? What is the fountain from which this river of rebellion springs? By this departure from communion with God through His holy scriptures; departure from prayer inspired by the word of God . Those holy men under divine inspiration must guide our prayer life; their thought must become our thought; their yearnings our yearnings. Not intentionally, but spontaneously as the Spirit moves upon our mind. As we read and study the Bible, the divinely inspired hopes and fears of holy characters of old must be appropriated by the student of the word, the Holy Writ inspiring our yearnings and requests of the God of truth and righteousness, as we ply and examine the holy pages of scripture.
Without the divine word of God molding our thoughts in prayer, we serve a god of our own conceptions; and Christ says of us, “Ye worship ye know not what.” Today there is a method of prayer and meditation that is spreading rapidly, called, Spiritual Formation. This method calls the individual to clear the mind and begin to form mental images that create a peaceful scene and calm the mind. Then prayer is begun, or meditation. This is pure idolatry. It is baptized paganism, and it has made its way into the Advent movement.
How is it pagan idolatry? Where is the Bible? How can the Lord mold our thinking through this method without His word present to align our mind with the character of the divine mind? It is the subtlest spiritualism and has been used in eastern religions for eons.
But how are the more orthodox Protestants and Adventists, who don’t use Spiritual Formation (yet) any better off who don’t appropriate the Bible and let its righteousness and its pathos become theirs? Here we have failed to come up to the mark Jesus has desired of His Advent movement. We have remained among the papal tombs from the Dark Ages on this issue. And it has told on us in our lack of interest in seeing Jesus come and end this present evil world. We’ve been ignorant, and God has winked at our ignorance. But many have been decidedly ignorant on this and a great sifting time is coming for them.
This method of studying the Bible for the purpose of opening up the lines of communication with heaven, I believe, is cutting edge preparation for the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit. I believe Satan fears it most and does everything to discourage it. It is the foundation of righteousness by faith. It is the essence of the gospel.
“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest.
I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
Withhold not Thou Thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: let such as love Thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.
But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: Thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.” Psalm 40.
A text has been a puzzle to me for years and now I think I understand it better. It is the following:
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:26,27).
I’ve often heard it explained that we just need to pray and the Spirit wafts our prayers up to Jesus, transforms them and expresses those prayers in heavenly sinless language that is acceptable to Jesus, who then presents them to the Father.
This concept is all wrong, very wrong! It excludes the word of God from its rightful place in our communion with God and leads right into pagan worship.
Jesus said, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (Jn. 4:21-23).
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (Jn. 6:63).
In both of these messages, we read of a spirituality without pretense. Genuine connection with God requires honest acceptance of Him and His character.
We cannot accomplish anything honest or true of ourselves, and the only thing genuine we can produce is rebellion and sin. Always and forever we need a crutch in order to do good, until we are welcomed into the heavenly kingdom. We can't even pray right without His assistance.
How can God accept our prayer without His kind of faith, the faith of Jesus? “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth.” (Jn. 9:31). “According to your faith be it unto you.” (Matt. 9:29). But how does the faith of Jesus come? We all know that answer. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:17).
So then, if prayer and meditation are to be full of faith and acceptable to God, they must be infused with His mind, His scriptures.
Interestingly, in his next breath Paul writes, “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” (vs. 18). In other words, through the Hebrew Scriptures, the source of faith went out to the whole planet. Especially did it find a place in Jewish homes. But why then did they reject their Messiah? How could it be that “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not,” “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not”? (Jn. 1:10,11).
Obviously there was a disconnect somewhere. Even among the Gentiles, in the misty past, they had had the oral word of God and the recent, still evident marks of the worldwide flood. But they fell away from that light and apostatized. Open rebellion set in and Nimrod rose to the top of oppression and false religion. Over time Satan quickly developed from that what we see today as modern paganism.
Something similar must have happened to the Jews as well. Otherwise, they would not have been so blind as to miss their Deliverer. As it is written, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Rom. 10: 16). “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2Cor. 4:3,4).
What was the result of losing faith in the word of God? “He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.” (Ez. 8:13,14).
When we lose the light of truth, Satan leads us to worship the wrong person. But that is not all. When we turn away from the truth and its convicting arrows, we walk among dry places. Our souls are dried up for joy and love and hope. Hedonism cannot satisfy us; neither can asceticism. We need something to help us unburden our hearts, but God is the only one who can do this in righteousness.
If we continue to turn away from the voice of His Spirit, then we finally go so far as to seek other sources of peace. And the devil is ready on hand to offer us his substitute. He offers a religion that lets us express our sorrows without having to sorrow for our sins. His best deterrent to repentance is a counterfeit worship that requires no repentance.
He speaks to the soul, saddened in self-pity because it refuses to surrender self to the Spirit of God, and he pets it and says, “Just cry out to the air. Weep; weep on my lap, my child. I am your savior; I sit on the sides of the north. After a few tears you will feel all better again.” This is the whole basis for Mariolatry. It has been the whole basis of paganism since the fall of man—a worship apart from and rejecting the word of God.
Satan was prophesied to do just that, and in an especially sophisticated way in the end.
“And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.” “And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” (Dan. 8:24,25,12). “He shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” (Dan. 11:21).
This is the “son of perdition” Paul forewarned of, “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2Thess. 2:4).
Have you seen this lately? I have. It’s growing by leaps and bounds. This is the foundation for the Catholic invented Charismatic movement, of praise songs, of being “slain in the Spirit,” and of speaking and praying in glossolalia.
And how does all this travesty begin? What is the fountain from which this river of rebellion springs? By this departure from communion with God through His holy scriptures; departure from prayer inspired by the word of God . Those holy men under divine inspiration must guide our prayer life; their thought must become our thought; their yearnings our yearnings. Not intentionally, but spontaneously as the Spirit moves upon our mind. As we read and study the Bible, the divinely inspired hopes and fears of holy characters of old must be appropriated by the student of the word, the Holy Writ inspiring our yearnings and requests of the God of truth and righteousness, as we ply and examine the holy pages of scripture.
Without the divine word of God molding our thoughts in prayer, we serve a god of our own conceptions; and Christ says of us, “Ye worship ye know not what.” Today there is a method of prayer and meditation that is spreading rapidly, called, Spiritual Formation. This method calls the individual to clear the mind and begin to form mental images that create a peaceful scene and calm the mind. Then prayer is begun, or meditation. This is pure idolatry. It is baptized paganism, and it has made its way into the Advent movement.
How is it pagan idolatry? Where is the Bible? How can the Lord mold our thinking through this method without His word present to align our mind with the character of the divine mind? It is the subtlest spiritualism and has been used in eastern religions for eons.
But how are the more orthodox Protestants and Adventists, who don’t use Spiritual Formation (yet) any better off who don’t appropriate the Bible and let its righteousness and its pathos become theirs? Here we have failed to come up to the mark Jesus has desired of His Advent movement. We have remained among the papal tombs from the Dark Ages on this issue. And it has told on us in our lack of interest in seeing Jesus come and end this present evil world. We’ve been ignorant, and God has winked at our ignorance. But many have been decidedly ignorant on this and a great sifting time is coming for them.
This method of studying the Bible for the purpose of opening up the lines of communication with heaven, I believe, is cutting edge preparation for the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit. I believe Satan fears it most and does everything to discourage it. It is the foundation of righteousness by faith. It is the essence of the gospel.
“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest.
I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
Withhold not Thou Thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: let such as love Thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.
But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: Thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.” Psalm 40.
posted by David | 6:16 AM
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