Before I share the blog post, let me tell you about my day today. It’s been WONDERFUL. Here’s why. Earlier today, I scheduled my DVR to record a whole lot of classic war movies during this Memorial Day Weekend. You know that the movies are going to be great because they are black and white movies produced in the 1940s and 1950s and especially great because they have the likes of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, William Holden, and Gregory Peck acting in them. A spiritual day? Well, maybe. Who knows, Jesus may be a John Wayne fan!
And now, the blog post.
From time to time, there are those who will pull me aside after one of our Holy Spirit Rallies to ask me about the validity of praying in the Spirit (AKA praying in other tongues). Is it real? Is it important? Is it necessary? I recognize that these are legitimate questions for many people. Knowing this, I could and perhaps should do individual blog posts for each of these questions. But for today, let me share three powerful truths about this type of prayer that might help answer these questions, truths that I gained perhaps a decade ago from one of my spiritual heroes, Oral Roberts. They are taken from a YouTube video of Oral Roberts teaching the incoming Oral Roberts University students in his The Holy Spirit in the Now series. I’ll simply share his insights about the importance of praying in the Spirit (shown in bold, italicized print) and then add just a few sentences about its significance. (All scriptures are taken from the Amplified Bible Class translation.)
- My mind slips into the background. My mind is put into neutral.
Our mind doesn’t participate at all as we pray in other tongues. That is why our mind challenges the validity of this type of praying.
1 Corinthians 14:14 – “For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the *Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody]. - The moment that we speak in tongues, our real being is speaking.
It is 100% spirit to Spirit connection. Notice the “my spirit by the Holy Spirit”.
1 Corinthians 14:14-15 – “For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the *Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody]. Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the *Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding…” - There is a need within man that can only be met by praying in the Spirit.
I’ll let the apostle Paul explain this truth.
Romans 8:26 – “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.”
1 Corinthians 14:2 – “For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].”
Thank you for the word