The Language of Prayer

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Language of Prayer

“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.”
Romans 8:26-27 KJV

A spiritual discipline that is essential to the vitality of the Christian life is the discipline of prayer! Much prayer; much power! Little prayer; little power! No prayer; no power! However, there are many Christians who are hesitant in prayer because they erroneously think that the effectiveness of their prayers is tied to their eloquence or command of the English language. But Jesus’ instruction to his followers in Matthew 6:7 was this, he said: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Real prayer is not a matter of words! Paul stated some very interesting concepts about prayer in Romans 8:26-27. First of all, Paul said that we do not know what we should pray for! The reason for this is because real prayer is petitioning and communicating with God according to the will of God. And because of our human limitations, we can never fully know the will of God! But the Holy Spirit helps us in this regard because the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God, fully knows the mind of God because the Holy Spirit is God! Therefore, the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered!

 
Now this is the main point I want to communicate in this post! The Bible says the Holy Spirit searches the hearts and knows the mind of God and intercedes for us according to the will of God! Therefore, when we pray, God is listening to our hearts and not merely our words! Have you ever been in a position wherein you wanted to express something, but it seem like there were no words to adequately express what you were feeling or thinking? You knew in your heart, but your mouth could not express it! Well, that’s similar to what happens in earnest prayer! There are no words to adequately express the content, longings, and desires of the heart!

 
Now, some have taken this passage as an allusion to speaking in tongues, or what many refer to as praying in the Spirit, but the text says, first of all that it is the Spirit that makes the intercessions; not us! Secondly, the Spirit makes the intercession with groanings that cannot be spoken! So when we pray, the Spirit takes the longings and desires of our hearts that constitute our prayers and filter those longings and desires through the strainer of God’s will! So, in the final analysis, real prayer is an expression of the heart and spirit rather than the mouth and the mind! Of course, we should strive to bring what we verbally pray in line with the desires and expressions in our hearts, but in the meantime; thank God for the intercessory aid and translating power of the Holy Spirit! For when we don’t know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit of God knows the language of prayer which cannot be formulated with spoken human words! The language of prayer is the deep inexpressible desires and longings of the heart! So, when you pray and you struggle to find the words to say, don’t worry about it: God still hears and understands!

We’re So Smart: We’re Stupid!

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stupid peoplePaul wrote of mankind’s rejection of God in Romans 1:22: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].” (The Amplified Bible). Wow! Isn’t that where we are today? Particularly here in America, where we claim to be more civil, sophisticated and smarter than the rest of the world! Yet in America, we have more people incarcerated per capita than any other advanced nation! As of January 15, 2015, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies, there are 2,228,424 prisoners in the United States. That is enough to make the United States rank first in that category. The second highest number of prisoners is in China, at 1,701,344. According to the Brookings Institution, in 2013 there were 710 Americans imprisoned for every 100,000 residents. This makes the United States rank first out of thirty-four OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries ranked in that category. The average incarceration rate among the OECD nations is 115. We spend more money on education than anyone else, yet we are NOT among the list of the 3rd quarter rankings of The World Top 20 Educational Systems! According to the site: Ranking America, the United States rank 14th out of forty countries ranked in the category of cognitive skills and educational attainment!
A study by two New York City cardiologists found that the U.S. has 88 guns per 100 people and 10 gun-related deaths per 100,000 people – more than any of the other 27 developed countries they studied. Japan, on the other hand, had only .6 guns per 100 people and .06 gun-related deaths per 100,000 people, making it the country with both the fewest guns per capita and the fewest gun-related deaths. Drs. Sripal Bangalore, who works at NYU Langone Medical Center, and Dr. Franz Messerli of St. Luke’s Medical Center studied the statistics of guns per capita and gun deaths. They used firearm injury data from the World Health Organization and guns per capita data from the Small Arms Survey to put together a list of 27 developed countries.
In view of the seemingly monthly occurrences of mass-shootings in America, coupled with juvenile behavior of government on all levels, it is obvious that we are not addressing “the elephant in the room!” When we have problems, we think we can fix them by throwing more money at them! But of course, before we do that, we must conduct studies of the studies to verify the finding of the studies! Then we must have meetings to plan the meetings so that we will be more productive in the meetings! I’m sorry, but nobody told me when or where the funeral was held; but apparently, common sense has died! If it is not dead, it is definitely not as common as it used to be!
What is the elephant in the room that we don’t want to address? The fact that the basic problem in this country is something that money, studies, gun-control, and government cannot address! It is the problem of sin! Call it psychoses, social maladjustment, or whatever! The real issue in America is a matter of the spirit! Gun control or even having more guns makes no difference if we have no self-control! But self-control does not come naturally! It comes as one’s spirit is influenced by Spirit of God! But the problem there is that, in America, for the most part, at best, we have restricted God and spiritual things to church buildings on Sunday mornings. And at worst, we deny the reality of spirit, by insisting that a bad home life, mental illness and other factors are to blame and that psychology and behavior modification (Pavlov’s dogs) are the answers! But the truth of the matter is this! Some people just don’t do evil things; some people are evil! And evil is not just restricted to behavior; evil is a malady of the spirit! And the malady of the spirit can only be fixed by the God of the Bible that America seeks to restrict to the pages of the Bible!
Wow! What a mess we have made! We are seeking morality without the Author of morals! We are seeking peace without the Prince of Peace! We’re trying to make people act right while all the time denying the reality of right! In this country, we’re so smart; we’re stupid!

The Proof: On the tree; Not under the tree!

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fruit treegifts under treeNow, I know it’s just late August and it is a bit early to be thinking about Christmas trees! But I want to invoke the image of a tree in regard to gifts to illustrate a common fallacy that many people make today in the quest to determine whether or not a person is a real Christian or not. Many people in the church are looking in the wrong place for the evidence!
Now, this is not to say that we should be judgmental or critical of one another because Jesus condemned that practice. But while he didn’t say that we are to judge in the sense of being critical, he did say that we are to be fruit inspectors! In reference to identifying false profits (Oh! I sorry, I meant) false prophets; Jesus said that a tree is known by the fruit it bears and that we would know them by their fruits! Now, I am writing this because in many of the circles in which I travel, I think people are using the wrong measuring stick! Many of the people I know are looking at what they believe to be the gifts of the Spirit to ascertain whether one is of God or not! But Jesus didn’t say that we would know them by their gifts; he said we would know them by their fruit! Therefore, the correct measuring stick is not the spiritual gifts but rather the spiritual fruit!
In my study of the Scriptures, I have come to the understanding that while all believers don’t have all of the gifts of the Spirit, all believers should have all of the fruit of the Spirit! The list of the fruit of the Spirit to which I am referring is found in Galatians. Paul is contrasting life in the flesh (the mindset that is alien and against God) with life in the Spirit. He said: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Gal 5:16-23 ESV) Those nine attributes listed in verses 22-23 are the evidence that the Spirit of God is present and abiding in an individual’s life! They are the evidence of the Spirit’s presence and thus the evidence of salvation, since the Bible declares in Romans 8:9 that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ!
The gifts are not the evidence, because Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the possibility of having or exercising the gifts to no avail without the manifestation of the fruit! (See 1 Corinthians 13). Aside from that, some of the gifts could easily be confused with natural gifts, talents and abilities.

Who Told You Who You Are?

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two faced personIn Genesis 3, Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of God because they were ashamed of their nakedness. The interesting about that situation was the fact that they were naked all the time! It was only after they had sinned did their nakedness become something of which they were ashamed! Nevertheless, I did not raise the issue of their nakedness to start a discussion on the “theology of clothes.” I raised it because of the question the LORD God asked them as they were trying to hide themselves. He asked: “Who told you that you were naked?”
Most of the information we have about ourselves from which we formed opinions about ourselves that eventually shaped our personality, came from other people. In other words, initially, we didn’t know who we were! Other people, such as our parents, relatives and other trusted authority figures told us who we were!
But have you ever stopped to think about the fact that many of the people who told us who we were might have had ulterior motives? Most of what people tell you about yourself is slanted and at best, tainted by their own insecurities and misconceptions. At the other end of the scale, many people tell you who you are in an attempt to manipulate and control. Some of what our parents told us about who we are may have been tainted by what they were told by their parents! Therefore, the insecurities and inferiority complexes that they experienced as children were passed on to their children!
I read in a book somewhere that if you want to know the purpose of a thing; don’t ask the thing, ask the inventor of the thing! The same is true with the identity of a thing! There are many people today who suffer from various phobias and anxieties, simply because they really don’t know who they are! They formed their identity based on the manipulative lies and insecurities of other people. But, if you really want to know who you are; ask God, because He is the inventor of all mankind and of the world in which we live!
According to the Bible, humanity was the apex and the grand master-piece of God’s creation! Man was crowned with wisdom and honor and was made a little lower than God! There was no “monkey-business” in the Garden of Eden; we were created in the image and likeness of God! Therefore, be mindful of people who always try to identify you in an inferior and negative way! Did you know that the great cosmic battle in the spirit world is all about the fate of humanity? The enemy raised Hell and the Incarnate Son gave up Heaven in the battle over humanity!
The bottom line is this: You are valuable! You have eternal worth! Do not allow people who don’t even like themselves to tell you who you are! You are an offspring of the Creator of the Earth! There is royal blood running through your veins! You were born to win! You were created to be a physical, visible expression of the spiritual, invisible God! That’s who you are!
Now, stop living as an orphan and lay claim to your royal heritage! If you don’t have a personal relationship with God; it’s time for you to come back home! God is waiting on you to quit asking and listening to other people to find out who you are. Sincerely ask Him and the answer will be given!

Where There is No Vision

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Wild WestIn the King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 29:18 reads: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Usually in Hebrew poetry, which is the genre (type of literature) of this particular text, the first phrase is complimented or contrasted by the second phrase. This is the tell-tale trait of Hebrew poetry called: parallelism. English poetry usually recognized by rhyme, such as what is found in “Jack and Jill” or “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” So, when we look at Proverbs 29:18 in the KJV text in the light of the fact that it is Hebrew poetry, we are immediately confronted with a problem! What is the connection between “vision” and keeping the “law?” At first glance, there seems to be none, especially if we take the word “vision” to mean what are the common definitions today. Vision is usually thought of as having to do with seeing or sight or dreams and goals. But is that the primary definition the author had in mind when he penned this text? I used to think so, but when I really looked at the text in light of its genre, I began to think differently.
I researched the Hebrew word that is translated as “vision,” and I discovered that the word can also be translated as; “prophecy or divine communication.” The Hebrew word that the KJV translates as “perish” is a word that means, “to be loosened of restraint.” Wow! That makes more sense to me in light of the whole structure of the verse! So here’s the Miller Translation: “Where there is no divine communication [no word from the Lord], the people are unrestrained [the people run wild]; but he that observes and obeys the word of God, happy [blessed] is he!”
Isn’t that where we are in the world today? Many people have cast off all restraint and as Paul wrote in Romans, not only have they cast off all restraints, they even deny the existence of the One who restrains! The Apostle Paul said: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:18-23 ESV)
Because the world has cast off the restraints of God, civilized humanity has degenerated into an uncivilized and inhumane mess! We have gone from one extreme to the other! I remember when I was growing up; I heard that the television shows; “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” were taken off of prime-time television because they were too violent! The cartoons our kids are exposed to today are more violent than they were! The racy R-rated movies of 30 years ago are the G-rated television shows of today! Speaking of “Gunsmoke,” I was in a store the other day and I observed a man who had a holstered-gun on his hip in plain sight! It reminded me of the cowboy-days of the old wild-west! One of the things I remembered from Gunsmoke was the fact that Marshall Dillion, Chester, and Festus, often had a problem distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys because everybody was wearing a gun! I think with the current gun laws and climate, particularly in America, we are no progressing in civility; we are regressing back to the days of the wild-wild-west!
Now, in the midst of this climate of unrestraint, where people are demanding freedom from all restrictions; my question is this: “Who is going to save us from ourselves?” History has proven over and over again; when people reject God and are let to their own standards, there are no standards and that culture is soon destroyed!
I pray that America turns back to God, but if history and the Bible are credible, and I believe they are, it will not happen! So what should the true Christian do in times like these? Be a credible witness to the truth of God’s word! Don’t compromise to cultural relativity! Be a living example of God’s love and grace! And pray! Pray for the courage to be salt and light in such a time as this!