For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15.What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding (1Cor14:14-15)
In this text Apostle Paul gives us some light into his prayer life. His prayer life kept on swinging between praying in tongues and praying with understanding! In this chapter Paul was addressing the issue of the use of tongues in the church and in verse 18 he affirmed that , “… I speak with tongues more than you all”!
Paul prayed with tongues more than all believers of his time and he says that when a believer prays with tongues, its the spirit praying. And when you pray in your known languages , its your understanding or your flesh or natural man praying. Paul teaches that both are necessary but praying in the spirit is greater and higher than praying with your natural human instincts!
Praying with your human understanding limits you to the things your mind knows, or what you think, what you see and what you feel or what your have heard! Therefore if you only pray with your understanding , your prayer is very , very limited both in scope and power, and you pray in understanding as your own mind leads you…
But on the day of pentecost they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Act2:4). Praying in tongues or in the spirit flows from the Holy Spirit..
Many believers boast of being prayerful when their prayer is full of self …..but let’s remember that we have been crucified with Christ and its no longer us living but Christ living in us!
If we died with Christ , then it shouldn’t be ” i” or “we” praying , it should be the Holy Spirit living in me praying through my spirit (Rom8:26-27)!
Praying in the Spirit (Eph6:18) is unlimited in scope and power, and therefore unlimited in results and exploits.
Natural prayers release natural answers but praying in tongues releases supernatural exploits!
Let’s get back our spiritual roots, lets begin to pray in our heavenly spirit- given languages unknown to men and devils, then and only then we shall walk , live and operate in dimensions unknown the powers of darkness and men..
Amen.
