His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. – 2 Peter 1:3-4
In our prayers and in our public services we are forever asking God to do things that He has already done or cannot do because of our unbelief. We plead for Him to speak when He has already spoken and is at that very moment speaking. We ask Him to come when He is already present and waiting for us to recognise Him. We beg the Holy Spirit to fill us while all the time we are preventing Him by our doubts. A. W. Tozer
Pray About It: One caution in your prayers: there’s no use asking God for what He’s already given us. For instance, if we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savoir, why would we continue to pray for our salvation? To do so is an affront to God, in that it demonstrates our great lack of faith in His Word. Many times we find ourselves asking God for something that He gave us long ago, which we need only to appropriate by faith.
What are some of these things we already have? Salvation, the Holy Spirit, eternal life, deliverance, victory over the enemy, the mind of Christ. To learn about these gifts God had already given us, we only need to turn to His Word, read His promises, and appropriate them.
It has been well said that bible study is simply an exploration of the promises God has made to His people. Prayer is appropriating them.
Faith is to believe in the Word of God, what we do not see. And its reward is to see and enjoy what we believe. Augustine
- In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. – Romans 8:26
Prayer is an impossible task without the Holy Spirit. We know not what we should pray as we ought, but the Spirit helps our infirmities. The Spirit instructs and inspires prayer, gives intelligence and intensity to intercession, and brings reality and joy to communion with God. Spirit-filled people love to pray, and prayer that is in the Spirit must prevail. Samuel Chadwick
Pray About It: The best way for us is to let the Holy Spirit within us pray through us. He knows the will of God in a given matter and thus we can never pray wrong when our prayers are from Him and to Him. We simply are vessels God uses to accomplish His will through prayer. Pray in the Spirit and pray in pure joy.
When we pray in the Spirit, we will pray for the right things and in the right way. There will be joy and power in our prayer.
To Be Continued!
Source: Culled from SALM’s article in the Spectator newspaper.
STAY BLESSED
