 What does it mean to pray in the spirit? We see this debate happening more and more as of late. The problem is, though, there was never really any question, any big discussion as to what it means to do anything in the spirit previous to 100 years ago. This is something that's a relatively new discussion where there's a debate as to what it really means. Now it can either mean, if you ask certain people, that it means to pray in tongues, pray in a language. Or some people, the most commonly held view of it, which has actually been the traditional view, the view of the church for the last 1900 years, prior to the last 100 years, it's always been meant to be praying in or with the spirit. A different meaning than praying in or praying in tongues or praying in a language. So I want to go ahead and jump into the scriptures. Let's go ahead and look at it. Let's start in 1 Corinthians 14, because there's really only three places, really, really three places where you can kind of get this understanding of this misconception from, because it's only spelled out or stated in this way, or it looks like that in the English, in three verses. One such verse is 1 Corinthians 14. Let's start in verse 13. It says, Therefore led one who speaks in a tongue. Now, I take this word tongue to be a language, but the one who speaks in the tongue pray that he may interpret. Why is that important? Well, because the Bible wants us. Paul tells us, as a matter of fact, how he opens up his discussion on spiritual things. In chapter 12, he wants us to be have. He wants to have understanding. Matter of fact, let's go to 1 Corinthians 12. He says now concerning spiritual gifts. And by the way, when you see the term spiritual gifts in the Bible, most often you're going to see, matter of fact, every time you're going to see this term or some derivation of it, pneumaticum. There's one place in the Bible where you'll see spiritual and then gifts beside it, or really not decided, but kind of in in close proximity. But most often talking about the things of the spirit, really how the spirit moves. And so Paul says now concerning the pneumaticum, these spiritual things, where the spirit moves, he says, I do not want you to be unaware or ignorant. The Greek word that's here is agnoane. Some verses might say one way or the other, but it just means I want you to know, to understand what's being spoken of. The word noos or noane is referring to your mind. And the word I or the letter I refers to not. So not knowing. So if we go back to 1 Corinthians 14, he says that I pray that he may interpret. Well, this word interpret means to explain, to get an understanding. That's literally what it means. And so I pray that the person that speaks in this tongue or this language, that they also have understanding that it be explained in, that they know exactly what they're talking about. How do I know? Well, if we keep reading, he says, verse 14, for if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. Now notice he's using the singular tongue. We won't cover this right now, but we've done before. We've kind of compared the singular versus the plural tongue that's used in the first part of 1 Corinthians 14. And so the issue that they're having here in the church is that there are people that are saying and doing things, having no idea what they're speaking of. Going back to 1 Corinthians 12, he says, I do not want you to be ignorant or unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, look what he says, I make known to you that no one speaking by the spirit. Now it's interesting that the word that's used here is enumati, very important, because that same phrase is going to show up again in the spirit or by the spirit. No one speaking in the spirit or by the spirit of God. Same thing says Jesus occurs. So no one who is in the spirit can say Jesus occurs. Well, why would Paul bring this up? Because apparently people are saying this. No one in the spirit can say Jesus occurs and no one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. Now then this word by the Holy Spirit, same word is used, and enumati, and this word hagyo, the adjective is used there. So in or by the Holy Spirit. So no one with the Holy Spirit can say Jesus is accursed. That doesn't make any sense. Just like you need the Holy Spirit to also say that Jesus is Lord. Now anyone can say Jesus is Lord, but his point is that they could actually mean it. And so what's happening? People are saying and doing things without knowing what it is that they're saying. So going back to 1 Corinthians 14, he says, if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, and Paul's not saying that those folks that are praying in, let's say, tongues, and this is where the confusion comes in, Paul's not saying those people are not trying to pray, that there's no effort. They're not really trying to communicate with God. They really are. The problem is, as Paul says, there's something that's being done ignorantly. He said, but my mind is unfruitful. That's the issue. My mind is unfruitful. So he's saying the people that are praying in a tongue, by the way, Paul's not saying that he prays in a tongue. He says, for if I pray in a tongue, and in this word, prosukamy, so if I in the word is because it's in the subjunctive, he's saying, if I may pray in a tongue, if I happen to pray in a tongue, and he's using this single, so it's not saying that he prays in this way, but he's saying, if I were to do it, like you guys have been doing, if I pray in a tongue, my mind is unfruitful. Well, clearly, that's not the goal. Paul just stated, he doesn't want us concerning these spiritual things. He does not want us to be ignorant. So there's a problem. There's got to be a solution to that. He says, but my mind is unfruitful. What then is the outcome? Well, what's the solution? There is no solution to something unless it's a problem. So what does he say? He says, I will pray with the spirit, and here it is, prosukamy, toe, pneumati. There's that word again, is toe or in, or by, or to, or with the spirit. I will pray in the spirit, and I will pray with my mind also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with my mind also. So now notice what Paul is saying. He's comparing the problem with the solution. So in verse 14, he says, if I may pray in the tongue, and I'm going to use the word may pray because this is in the subjunctive, and the subjunctive is how you bring out a possibility, potentiality. So if I may pray in a tongue, notice what he says, though. The solution is, I will pray with the spirit, and this word, too pneumati, which we've been talking about, the same verb which is used here, enter with the spirit, and I will pray with my mind also. Now notice what the problem is, praying with my tongue, or praying in a tongue. The solution does not also include a tongue. The solution is pray with my, with the spirit, and I will pray with my mind also, in other words, with understanding. So I will pray in accordance with my spirit, but also in accordance, or I'm not with my spirit, but with the spirit, but also with my mind. So praying in the spirit necessarily requires you to pray with understanding. You need to know what it is you're saying, what you're thinking, what's coming out. Now are there times where you cannot verbally express what you're trying to say? There are times where you're not sure what to say, but that does not mean that your prayer is then changed into a language or into a tongue that you have no idea what you're saying, because Paul just corrects that. Paul's point is, if I'm going to pray, I need to pray with understanding, and notice he does not say, I'm going to now pray with tongues in the spirit and with understanding. The problem is this word in the spirit. As we go throughout the scriptures, and we just type in the word in the spirit, all throughout the scriptures, we'll see, especially in the Greek, we're going to see that this word does not mean in tongues. It cannot mean in tongues. As a matter of fact, it would be clunky and awkward for it to mean in tongues. In the spirit does not, nor has it ever meant in tongues. Matthew 22-43, then how does David in the spirit call on him saying, Lord, is this saying that David is calling on him in tongues? Well, we didn't see tongues then. Luke 117, it is he who goes as a forerunner for him in the spirit. Speaking of John, was John going before Jesus in tongues? No. And he came in the spirit into the temple. Is he saying he came in in tongues? No, it is not. After these things were finished, Paul purposed in the spirit, same words in the spirit, to go to Jerusalem. Now, is this to say that he also was doing in tongues? And by the way, look at the words that are used here. And toe numati, the same words that were used in 1 Corinthians 14. Again, guys, it's very important to understand. Prior to the beginning of the 1900s, no one thought, no one in the church thought that in the spirit meant in tongues. This is a new phenomenon. So in order for this to be the case, that means we've got almost 2,000 years of the foundation of the church where no one thought this. As a matter of fact, interestingly enough, no one in the family of the church or in the Bible, did we ever encounter anyone praying in tongues? We never see that. The reason why we have this confusion about it is because with the advent of the Pentecostal movement, charismatic movement, they have reinterpreted in light of their experience. This, oh, this must mean what I'm experiencing. No, my experiences have to be interpreted in light of the scriptures. So other passages also bring out this issue of in the spirit, and we may go back to 1 Corinthians, but one such passage they bring up is Jew 20. Beloved, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. And here we see this term, praying in the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, we see in Numati Hagiel, which is the same word that we saw in 1 Corinthians 12. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 12. Notice he says that no one says that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit. And Numati Hagiel, is that the only one that you can say? Because if this means in tongues, the only way that you can say Jesus is Lord is by tongues? No. Anyone can say that Jesus is Lord. As a matter of fact, the only way that you can be saved is to confess that Jesus is Lord. Are we to take that, if this means in tongues, that the only way to be saved is to say it in tongues? That would be silly. Obviously that's not the point. So going back to Jew 20, clearly he's not saying, because again, no one has thought that, no one thought that at that time, it was never done in the Bible. We have no examples of it. And for the first 1900 years of church history, including the founding of the church and early church fathers, we don't see anyone thinking that in the Spirit means in tongues. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. He's not speaking about in tongues. We're going to talk about what this means in the Spirit. Just a second. And there's another passage also where this thought might come up as well. This is in Ephesians 6, 18, where he says, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view. So pray at all times. So let's look at this phrase. Pray at all times. Prasuka menoi. So this is constantly praying, a pattern of praying, continuously praying, and numati. Well, in the Spirit, I'm sorry, in all times and numati. So are we to keep praying at all times in tongues? There's never a command for that. How could this possibly mean praying in tongues at all times when the Bible says that we all don't speak in tongues? Now, so I'm going to say there's a difference between speaking in tongues and praying in tongues. The question is, where do you find that at? You would have to interpret a passage outside of all the other passage to come up with this understanding. There is no such thing as praying in tongues because the Bible doesn't speak about praying in tongues. The Bible speaks about speaking in tongues, about this gift, and tongues also, by the way, has only been meant, at least in the scriptures, a language. Anyone that speaks in a language, well, that makes sense to someone if he's speaking to an audience of people who don't speak the same language as the other folks to hear the gospel. And also, we talked before about this being a sign unto the unbelieving Jews. So that's a whole other story. But here, it could not mean praying in tongues. That would make this understanding in Jude 1.20 also clunky. So what is... I'm sorry, Ephesians 6.18. With prayer and supplication, he says, with prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view, be on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Now, notice what he says also. And pray on my behalf. Is that also to be in tongues? That utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known the bolt of the mystery of the gospel. Now, again, going back to this in the Spirit, if we just keep just scrolling through, we never see this idea of in the Spirit or even in the Holy Spirit, ever to mean in tongues or in the language. And so what does it mean? Well, the word in the Spirit is in accordance to, with, in the authority. Based on whatever the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit is moving, that's what it means to be in the Spirit. That's what it means to be in the Holy Spirit. You're being governed by, you're moved by in accordance with. That's literally what this means. Now, if your prayers or really anything that you do is not accompanied by the Holy Spirit, if it's not in leagues with, on the basis of led by the Holy Spirit, well, then that's not what he's speaking of. And I know that's going to be supposed to go to challenge me. Hey, Corey, you are a cessationist. I'm not a cessationist. I believe that if you are using or being used by the Spirit in such a way that gifts are being manifested in you, fine. As long as those gifts look like, as long as the Spirit moving in you looks like what we see in the Bible. So I would say I'm a biblical continuation. In other words, the Spirit, the spiritual gifts that we see in the Bible, if you feel like you have that gift or the Spirit is working in you, it should look exactly like it's always looked in the Scriptures. That's our authority. We should not have to reinterpret the Scriptures based on someone's experience. Instead, our experiences should be interpreted by the Scriptures. If our experiences don't look like the Scriptures, if our experiences don't look like what it looks like in the Bible, then they are by definition on biblical. So we cannot come back and say that in the Spirit means this, whereas nowhere else in the Scripture does it mean that it just simply means to pray in leagues with or according to the Scriptures. I mean, according to the Holy Spirit. Now again, some are going to be in disbelief. Some are going to argue and say, no, I'm wrong. That's fine. For them, I'll let them debate that. I'll let them go and find examples in the Scriptures where in the Spirit means in tongues they won't find anything because there is no such thing. Again, and they'll also have to figure out what hide in the world, why hide in the world of the Church go 1900 years, including the founding of the Church and the early Church fathers and so forth. Why do we go 1900 years? Without anyone ever thinking this and then in the last 100 plus years, that's when we've seen this. But that's an argument for them to figure out. But according to the Scriptures, this is literally what this means. In the Spirit means in with or according to or company by the power of the authority of the Holy Spirit. Amen.