 Okay, so I spent some time reviewing what we had done in the last class now. Let's look at what we have for today, which is Praying in the spirit now when we talked about the different kinds of prayers we mentioned that we can also Pray in the spirit. Okay, so what does it mean? What are the benefits of praying in the spirit? There is an APC publication called the wonderful benefits of praying in the hole in the in tongues So you can actually study and review that publication to Gain much more about this particular subject, but today we will look at how praying in the spirit, you know is Helpful and why God has Instituted or orchestrated this form of prayer. So you could go to your notes And follow the notes Chapter 7 prayer in the spirit. What I'll do is I will also share it for our online students That way you can follow along online students. I'm sure you're able to see this chapter 7 of Prayer and intercession course So when we talk about The Holy Spirit and his ministry in our lives, we are Encouraged in God's word to be baptized in the Holy Spirit We are encouraged in God's word to walk in the spirit. Okay, and to also be led by the spirit Filled with the spirit. These are all terms which are used in scripture for us. So This is important because God wants us to have a close fellowship with the Holy Spirit and The Holy Spirit's ministry should be a part of our lives in in a very, you know Integrated way the fellowship of the Holy Spirit we see when Paul writes to the Corinthians He says that may the grace of our Lord Jesus the love of the Father the sweet Communion or the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be yours. So he blesses the people in this way So for all the believers the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is something which is very very important for us Now when we talk about prayer We have to recognize that prayer in the spirit is also something that God has Blessed us with so it's a blessing praying being able to pray in the spirit. It's an incredible blessing Okay, now I will explain to us why it is a blessing So when we write when we see the writings of Paul No, he says that I pray with my understanding and I also pray in the spirit We looked at this, you know, couple of classes ago and even I think last class when we had some question and answers So first Corinthians 14 verses 14 and 15 where Paul says that my spirit prays when I he says when I pray in a tongue My spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. So you see the distinction there. There is something called Praying in the spirit and praying with understanding. So these are two different things Okay, if it was not so then he wouldn't make that statement. So he says when I pray in an unknown tongue My spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful So two separate things that tells us we can pray in the spirit and we can also pray with our Understanding, okay. Now some people ask the question is praying in the spirit just an intense way of praying When I pray and I'm engaging with God in a very intense manner Does that mean that I'm praying in the spirit and when you see the writings of Paul He uses this term in the spirit for tongues. It's quite clear Because what did you say now? He said when I pray in a tongue my spirit prays, but my Understanding is unfruitful. Let's see continuation verse 15. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit. So In the Greek language with okay, it's it's like N. N is like in with That's what it means. So he's saying I will pray with the spirit or pray in the spirit And I will also pray with my understanding again. He's making a distinction. He's saying two ways I'm going to pray. I will pray with the spirit or in the spirit. I will also pray with my understanding. Okay, so when He says I will pray with my spirit earlier. What did he say when I pray in tongues? Okay, so we are in the same context now. He's saying when I pray in the Spirit, so I will pray with the spirit and I will also pray with my understanding now in continuation same context, I will sing with the spirit and I will also sing with the understanding. So you see that rice. He's mentioning Praying in tongues Equated with praying with the spirit Praying Singing with the spirit. Okay with the spirit in the spirit Greek language, you know N is a term which is used. So there are two separate ways in which you and I can engage in prayer. Now the same fall to the Ephesians Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18 There he says Praying always with all prayer and supplication In the spirit. See with the spirit in the spirit. Okay, so we can pray All prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints So again another category of prayer that he is talking about so does Paul say that we must only pray in The spirit not at all quite simple. He's already said in the spirit and understanding so when a believer prays We must engage in both kinds of prayers now if our prayer with the understanding Was sufficient or enough? Why should we pray in the spirit? Isn't it God would have said just pray with your understanding because that is the most effective way for a Believer to pray. However, we see in the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit was poured out and The believers when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit when does one speak in tongues? In the book of Acts, we see when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit That was the only time when they began to speak in tongues So without that experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit Gifts of the spirit are not activated in the life of a believer Where the disciples Believers before the baptism in the Holy Spirit Where they believers or not? The disciples in the book of Acts Acts chapter 1 where they believers? Okay What do you think they were believers, right? They were praying they were waiting upon the Lord they You know, they talked about the teachings of Jesus. They believed in Jesus. They were believers but Jesus told them you wait for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit wait till you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit So they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 and what happened? This experience the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is that of speaking in tongues was seen It was made manifest. All right, so now Which believer can pray in the Spirit? Any believer who is baptized in the Holy Spirit Will have the activation of these gifts in their Spirit man Okay, so Baptism in the Holy Spirit is required once they are baptized then this gift is activated in them And how do they utilize this gift? So I will tell you my story I you know as a child I went for some crusade my mother took me there So after the crusade was over at the end of the crusade they said You know the preacher there he said that it's important for every believer to be baptized in the Holy Spirit So I'm going to pray and you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and he gave at that time He gave a very simple analogy which I understood because I was just a child Maybe I don't know some 13 years old. So he said the Holy Spirit is like water Okay, it's just his example The Holy Spirit is like water and he you can imagine him being filled in the tank some of us We see large tanks in you know certain areas Okay, so they build this huge tank for the entire region So think about him as water in a large tank he wants to baptize you and You will release the gift of tongues when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit So what should you do? You need to desire and he said he gave the example You desiring and asking the Holy Spirit to baptize you is like opening the tap It's as simple as that you can imagine the water in the tank and then the water flows To every tap which is open. So very simple. I'm going to pray a prayer with you You pray with me your tap will be opened is what he said and as a child I understood that I thought hey This is really simple and he prayed. He said in the name of Jesus Be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I just started speaking in tongues So that thousands of people around everyone's just speaking in tongues That was my first experience of speaking in tongues praying in the spirit So that happened I Did not know the meaning or the value of speaking in tongues. That was the maybe the first time and Now and then whenever we used to go for a meeting or a church program Something I used to pray in the Holy Spirit Whenever I used to feel like I'll pray in the Holy Spirit. That's all I Did not understand the meaning of praying in the Holy Spirit Till I Started going to a youth group where they had you know a session some of you might have Heard about that session. No those days we used to have that the Alpha course So in the Alpha course the last topic is Holy Spirit Baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and all that so in that class They told us that this is a prayer language Which you are supposed to use I did not know all that So many years of my life and I it was a youth group. So by the time, you know, I had Many years had passed and I had actually never utilized the gift of Speaking in tongues That is when I learned that I can pray in the spirit You know whenever I want just the way I pray with my languages and that it will Release answers from God into my life from that time I started Deciding and determining, you know, like, okay, I'm going to take time to pray whatever for one hour two hours I will pray in the spirit. I will pray in the spirit and Started making use of that gift So God has given a prayer language It is not to be spoken only during some meetings When we have when we feel all the anointing of the spirit is so mighty on us. Let's Pray in tongues. Let's speak in tongues There is much more that we can do with speaking in tongues or in other words praying in the spirit Okay, so what did Paul say? He said in Ephesians 6 18. We've seen that he said praying always with all prayer and supplication in The spirit so I mean he uses the term always all kinds of prayers. So he adds Praying in the spirit also that it may be a part of our lives Regularly so here's the question. Do we pray in the spirit regularly if we don't then we should start doing that Why should we start doing it? We will see the reasons why Praying in the Holy Spirit is so very Important so as I am sharing these points if you have any questions or you know, you want to share your Experience, please feel free. You can always interrupt me and I continuously look at The screen as well here for the Google Classroom students. So, you know just Post your question there and we will take it up. So here is the first reason When we pray in the spirit, we can pray without boundaries Okay, when we pray in the spirit, we can pray without boundaries first Corinthians 14 and verse 2 I want to request one of you to please read that First Corinthians 14 and verse 2 Okay, wonderful. So one who speaks in tongues, who does he speak to? Who is he speaking to? Angels? Who is he speaking to? God. Okay, very clear. So when we speak in tongues, it is a prayer So when we speak in tongues, it's always what it is a prayer because who are you speaking to? To God, you're not speaking to your neighbors or the group that you are a part of they can hear you but Speaking to God and when one speaks in tongues first Corinthians 14 to what does it say? He speaks what? What does he speak? He speaks mysteries. He speaks mysteries unto God And he cannot understand, right? He himself cannot understand is what that scripture also says So here are three points we have understood. One is that when we speak in tongues, we speak to God. It's a prayer Second we speak mysteries to God Mysteries in itself are beyond our understanding. That's why we call it a mystery You know, how was the sun formed? There are many theories But it's still mysterious. We don't have all the answers So when you don't understand something, we say hey, that's mystery When we are praying in tongues, we are speaking mysteries unto God That means we don't understand. So if somebody comes and asks Brother, you're speaking in tongues. Sister, you're speaking in tongues. Can you understand what you are saying? Answer is, I'm sorry. I don't understand what I am saying I am saying because I am speaking mysteries unto God And the scripture also says that the person who is praying in tongues does not understand what he is saying So when we are praying in the spirit, you know, sometimes some people feel very, you know, foolish That what am I saying? I can't understand what I'm saying Maybe I'm making this up. So a lot of people have such doubts Maybe I'm making this up because I cannot understand what I'm saying But what does the Bible say? Obviously, you cannot understand what you're saying Because what are you saying? Mysteries unto God So it's a prayer which is spoken to God And it carries mysteries And that's why when we are praying in the spirit, this is what happens We pray without boundaries When I pray in English, we talked about the pattern which you and I can use, isn't it? So in that, when I say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven I will begin to pray for everything Different points, Lord, let your kingdom come in my life Let your kingdom come in my family members life Lord, let your kingdom come in my church Lord, let your kingdom come in my nation Let your kingdom come in my congregation So what are we doing with our understanding? We are praying but we are accommodating things as far as our understanding can go So I will pray for every person that I care about I value, I'll put them into the prayer and say, Lord, let your kingdom come into their lives But when I pray in tongues, my mind cannot understand it So it is possible that I am praying for things or I am praying for people that I don't even know So I am praying in tongues and I may be praying for somebody in another country I may be praying for someone whom I have never met I may be praying for someone I met just once But they are going through a difficulty in their lives And the Holy Spirit through me and through my prayer is causing a miracle to take place in their life So when I say praying in the spirit is praying without boundaries This is what it means I pray for things that I may not be able to understand So I am praying for people who I don't know I could also be praying for matters that I don't know For example, when I am praying I probably have an idea of what I am going to do in the next 10 years But in those next 10 years I don't know what kind of financial challenges I might face Or what kind of family challenges I might face But when I am praying in the spirit I am praying for things that I may never know You are understanding what I am saying? So I am praying for people that I don't know I am praying also for circumstances that I don't know I may be praying for things way in the future I may be praying for things concerning let's say a young person is praying And they don't know about their future What career am I going to take Which city I am going to live in Who am I going to marry? Nothing They don't know anything But when you are praying in the spirit You may be praying about all those things Way into the future And sometimes we don't even have language Natural human language To cover these points, to describe these points But that is why God has given us the ability to pray in the Holy Spirit So when I take time to pray in the Holy Spirit I am praying for my present, my past, my future People I know, people I don't know So much is going on in those moments when you and I are praying in the Holy Spirit We are speaking mysteries unto God And it's one of the best things you and I can ever do Okay, spend time praying in the Holy Spirit Because you are covering things that you are Does our mind know everything? No, so we use the term finite My mind is finite Sometimes my mind can only go to a certain extent But when we are praying in the Holy Spirit It's like infinity Okay, and that is why we say It is a blessing And God has given such a blessing That we can pray for things Which we cannot understand Way beyond our limited capacity of thinking Why not utilize it? You know, it sounds amazing, isn't it? It's a wonderful gift that God has given You and I can pray without boundaries Or in other words Our prayer life will become limitless I've heard many testimonies I know that I can't validate it to you Meaning if I say, I heard somebody said this You may never be able to go and check Or is she telling the truth or what So that's why I was hesitating to share some of these stories But I'll just share I'm sure you also would have heard in your own circles Certain stories, so I heard this one Aunty, she is like a prayer warrior She spends a lot of time in prayer So apparently once She had this sense That she has to pray for her niece So suddenly she was just doing her regular work And she felt she has to pray for her niece So she left everything She sat down and she started praying in tongues For her niece She did not even know what her niece is going through With situation, nothing So she prayed But when she prayed She felt that she should pray more So she kept praying And at one point she felt peace in her heart That you have prayed enough Now stop And later when she called up her niece And asked her, I felt like praying for you So I prayed What happened Then her niece shared something like an accident Around the same time When this Aunty was praying That was happening And God was asking somebody Who was far away from her to pray For someone else So that is one testimony which I heard Which I was really impacted by Another testimony which I heard was One preacher He shares this story I forget all the small details of the story But John Paul Jackson He is not alive anymore But then he shared That once he had gone to a particular city To minister And in the night He started having this incredible stomach pain And the next day he had to go He had to preach and share Minister and all those things So when he was so sick He just cried out to the Lord And he said, Lord I have come so far to minister to these people I cannot go back Without doing that You heal me So he just started crying out to the Lord And saying, heal me He was an excruciating pain And at that time And it was as if God was encouraging him And saying that I know you are not able to pray right now But somebody is praying for you And then he gets this vision And in that vision It's like, you know how in the movies You have this whole Suddenly you go to the top view Of a forest So suddenly there's a top view Like he's seeing an entire forest And it's zooming in It's going in And then He sees a small hut And he sees a lady Who's sitting over there She's got a lot of wrinkles on her face Basically she's very old A very old lady Who's praying in tongues And the spirit of God told him That I am healing you Because of the prayers of this woman She was in some Amazon South American place She doesn't know you I am healing you today That healing balm is being poured out on you Because of her Some old lady She has no clue who this man is But in a vision he saw Who was praying And then after he saw that vision He shares how he felt like a warm oil Being poured out on his That stomach area Where he had a lot of pain And he got healed He got the relief And God ministered to him Through the prayers of an unknown lady And this lady What would she have thought? She would have thought I am old, I can't do any ministry Okay, let me at least sit in my room And pray But what is God doing? God is using her prayers To heal a man of God Who's gone to minister somewhere else So never underestimate What our prayers can do In this case Praying in the spirit Okay, so just two testimonies I shared with us But I have my own personal testimonies If you ask others They will also share with you how When we pray in the spirit Sometimes we don't know What God is doing through it But we have to be obedient To that prayer call Which God gives us So praying in the spirit One blessing is You might be praying for your ministry You might be praying for your Finances You might be praying for your marriage You might be praying for your children You don't have children now But you can be praying for your children in the future You never know what you are praying for That's what 1 Corinthians 14-2 says When one prays in tongues He does not understand But what is he doing? He's speaking mysteries unto God Mysteries unto God So it is a privilege The Bible also tells us That when we pray In the spirit We are praying according to God's will Alright, so I want to request Somebody to kindly read Romans chapter 8 Versus 26 and 27 Okay, wonderful So many things have been said here But I want to highlight The last portion of verse 27 Of Romans 8 It says Because he makes intercession For the saints According to the will of God According to the will of God So how does the Holy Spirit Help us to pray In the earlier verse We saw that The Holy Spirit helps us In our weaknesses For we do not know what we should pray for As we are But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us With groanings Which cannot be uttered Now he who searches the hearts Knows what the mind of the Spirit is Because he makes intercession For the saints According to the will of God According to the will of God And earlier what did it say? It said We don't know what we should pray for Okay, so this happened very recently In fact last week I think Last week maybe yeah Last week So one of our Congregation One of the students She got an opportunity to study abroad So her father also went with her To drop her off So she had gone And regularly she was messaging me And letting me know that Well this is happening, that is happening So one day she messaged me I think it was last Monday So she messaged me And she said There is a form I have to get a job On campus For that I have to fill a form But there is some complication There is some other documentation Which is required So I cannot access the form The form is not opening for me I cannot fill it I cannot apply for an on campus job And that will be very difficult for me I don't know what to do So the moment I read that message I was so sad for her I felt all the way she has gone As it is it's expensive But this is so sad That she can't fill the form And if she doesn't get the job One is It will be helpful financially But experience You get such good experience Usually I messaged back Immediately But I didn't know what to write Like how this says Romans 8 Was 26 We do not know what we should pray for As we ought So in that moment Literally I felt I don't know what I should pray Should I pray Okay God Give her another job outside campus Or God She explained to me That it is Almost impossible Because of the documentation For her to be able to fill this form So she said I don't know what's going to happen So I felt so sad And I thought okay I'm not going to message her What I did that whole day Is I just prayed in tongues I thought of her and I said Lord I don't know what I'm praying I'm just praying for this Child of yours You took her This form has to open She has to fill the form She has to be able to Get the job on campus I don't know what to pray So I'm just praying in tongues I'm praying in tongues And before I slept So if I Text her in the night It will reach her in the morning So I prayed And I just started texting I'm like God you give me the words I texted her I told her something And I felt like she should pray a prayer Take authority in the name of Jesus Command that form to open Something like that So I just wrote it all down I put a scripture and then that's it And the next day she messaged me back She said You will not believe what happened I have been trying to open that form And open that form several times It didn't open But the moment I saw your message And I just took a deep breath Clicked the form, it opened She's like I don't know how it opened I was telling myself I also don't know how it opened Because it's God It was a miracle So she said it opened faster And I filled the form It's done now I am getting a job on campus And all that So it was just normal One moment it was impossible Second moment it was normal When I read the message I was like Holy Spirit I don't know what I prayed But What do we see here? Romans 827 How does the Holy Spirit help us? He helps us Make intercession He makes intercession for the saints According to the will of God So there are times in our lives We just don't know what to pray Okay You'll be like What should I pray About my life Lord I can't understand I don't know what to pray Do you want to pray in the will of God? Do you want to pray in other words? Perfect prayer When we pray in tongues When we pray in the spirit What does the Bible say? We are praying in the will of God So if I pray for my future In tongues Of course I don't understand You know what I'm praying And of course I don't know if I'm All the prayer that I'm praying is only for me I don't know But I'm just being obedient And praying in tongues Holy Spirit will help me To pray in the will of God What does God's will for my life That door will begin to open up Okay So it is a privilege Begin to pray in the will of God Sometimes people are embarrassed To pray in tongues They say Oh what are all these sounds Why You know it's so embarrassing But you know something What does the Bible say? When we pray in tongues We are praying in the will of God So even if you say one syllable You know sometimes We just say like The one syllable You know whatever Whatever Even that is perfect You don't know what you said I don't know what you said But even that one syllable Which you and I utter As per the Holy Spirit's guidance What does it say? It is in the will of God It's a perfect prayer Do you want to pray perfect prayers? Do you want to pray effective prayers? Do you want to pray successful prayers? Pray in tongues Pray in tongues Because when we pray in tongues There's no doubt Will God answer or not? Is he going to accept or not? No doubt What does it say? You are praying in the will of God And what did we learn earlier? We said that One John chapter 5 We said that You know when we pray In the will of God He hears us Isn't it? God will hear and answer When we pray according to His will So that is again a blessing I'm able to pray in the will of God Now let's move on The next benefit A blessing is When we pray in the Holy Spirit It helps us overcome The weakness of our flesh Romans 826 Likewise The Spirit also Helps in our weaknesses For we do not know what we should pray for As we are But the Holy Spirit himself Makes intercession for us With groanings which cannot be uttered So Holy Spirit is helping us How? Through the groanings Or the words which we are Able to release But the beginning portion of this verse says Helps in our weaknesses The Spirit helps in our weaknesses So all of us as believers According to 2 Corinthians 517 We are a new creation In Christ Jesus Okay But We are perfect in our spirit But not in our soul So there are times When there are weaknesses of the flesh What kind of weaknesses We talked about it Maybe we struggle with pride We struggle with self We struggle with lust We struggle with jealousy We struggle with a sense of bitterness Anger, competition Maybe there are personal weaknesses Like fear, insecurities Many things Many weaknesses that each one of us may carry And we want to overcome These weaknesses One of the ways To overcome our personal weaknesses Is pray in the spirit Okay because the Spirit helps The Holy Spirit helps in our weaknesses When we pray in tongues Okay So what did Jesus say About What did John the Baptist say about Jesus The one who comes after me He will baptize you with what Holy Spirit and Fire What does fire do? It cleanses us If you put things in fire Whatever is very light or impure Have you heard about gold being processed in fire? What happens? The impurities will disappear Isn't it? So you expose it to fire The same way you and me The way we are built When we expose ourselves To the working of the Holy Spirit What will happen? The baptism in the Holy Spirit will cleanse So maybe I'm a very lustful person But as I'm praying in the spirit Praying in the spirit Praying in the spirit What's happening? My spirit man is being cleansed You know my soul is being cleansed My body is being cleansed So after a while After a few years As I look at myself I wonder Wow I was that person Who is this new person? You know overcomer Over lust The work of the Holy Spirit In my life Will help me in my weaknesses Maybe I'm a kind of person You know I speak foul language Open my mouth bad language comes out What to do? Praying in tongues So I'm not saying this is the only way Because we also have to renew Our minds So there is a work of the word Of God in us To cleanse us But the Holy Spirit Can cleanse us The Holy Spirit can help us overcome Maybe I'm a fearful person I feel God you have all these great plans For me but I'm not strong enough How will I do it? I can't do it I don't have the ability I don't have the support Praying in the spirit Think about people like Peter When Jesus was under trial What did Peter do? He ran away He escaped from the scene Where is your courage Peter? No courage Zero courage After baptism in the Holy Spirit When lot of people are looking at These 120 people speaking in tongues What did Peter do? The Bible says Peter rose up He preached his first message Boldness How did you become so bold Peter? What happened to you? The baptism in the Holy Spirit The work of the Holy Spirit So For us to overcome our weaknesses Spend time Praying in the Holy Spirit In tongues You will see That your weaknesses will begin To Be taken care of So at this point I'm just going to pause If you have any questions Any doubts We have some questions here On the chat So I'll quickly Go over that So Krisha Are we supposed to keep our eyes closed? Sit in one place Every time we pray in the Spirit Or can we speak in tongues While we are doing something Would that be wrong? So Krisha the answer is The way God has given us This ability It bypasses the mind So I can actually do Something else with my mind I am praying in tongues in my mouth So I used to do this in my office So I had this one particular Role which was very difficult So I used to sit in front Of the computer work At office but always under my breath I would be praying in tongues Nobody knows I'm praying in tongues But I'm actually praying in tongues So that's another wonderful thing That God has done for us That we can bypass the mind So you can be cooking, driving Doing anything But praying in the Spirit Your next question says is there a right posture Not necessarily As I told you It can be spontaneous Any time you can pray in tongues But it would be nice If you can set aside time And pray the usual way That you pray with your understanding In a certain posture, closing your eyes That way what happens You're praying in tongues Your mind can be used by God To give you visions and prophetic words And the Holy Spirit can also speak to you In a more engaging way So you do it both ways You can do it As a separate Intense activity Or along with other things that you do And Alright, so those are the questions we had I hope that's helpful Let's go for a break We'll come back in 10 minutes So see you all, thank you