Probably just a few of this blog’s readers are old enough to remember something called a party line. For all of the youngsters, a party line is not a bunch of people line dancing at a party. So, what is a party line? Until the 1980’s, most of America’s phone systems consisted of multiple homes sharing a telephone circuit and thus creating what was called a party line. Because of the shared circuit, it was common to pick up your telephone to make a phone call and hear one of your neighbors speaking on a phone call originating from their home. To make your phone call, you would have to hang up your telephone and wait until they finished their conversation and hung up their telephone. If the truth be known, this was a great resource for gossipers. Often people on a party line would listen in and eavesdrop on their neighbor’s conversations. Eventually, the telephone companies phased out the party line and created direct circuit lines to each and every phone.
I am sharing this information about a party line to let you in on a secret. When we pray with our understanding, we are praying what I call party line prayers, prayers that allow Satan to eavesdrop on what we are saying. Through these prayers, Satan gains information that was previously unknown to him, information that he can twist and misconstrue to use against us in his attacks. I know that you can identify with what I am saying. You’ve had this happen over and over again, right?
How do we kick Satan out of the loop on what is being said in our conversations with God?
The remedy is quite simple. Start praying in the Spirit. You see, when we start praying in our heavenly language, we turn our prayers from being a party line conversation into a direct secure line conversation that only God the Father can understand. According to the apostle Paul …
“For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not
unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him;
howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.”
1 Corinthians 14:2
Did you catch it? Praying in the Spirit allows us to pray heaven’s secrets directly to the Father. I love how the James Moffatt Translation renders the verse … “he is talking of divine secrets in the Spirit.” The Weymouth Translation reads “Yet in the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.” The Translator’s New Testament states “he speaks secrets by inspiration.” So, when Satan starts to input his lies, it is the opportunity of all opportunities to say, “Excuse me devil. Your lies aren’t needed or welcome and so, beginning right now, the Father and I will leave you out of this conversation as I begin to commune with Him by the Spirit” and then begin to pray the secrets of heaven as you pray in other tongues. It will quiet the enemy!
While there are so, so many reasons for praying in the Spirit, I’d pray in the Spirit for this one reason alone. Let’s daily use this direct line praying as a powerful weapon against our enemy and keep him out of the prayer conversations and his nose out of the knowledge of heaven’s secrets. I guarantee that it will change your prayer life!
