How To Develop A Consistent Prayer Life
In management terms, effectiveness means doing the right thing while efficiency means doing the thing right.
While effectiveness implies getting the desired result, efficiency implies the judicious use of time and efforts to get the result. In relation to how will pray in holy spirit making it compare and contrast in juxtaposition.
Here is the key difference:
In the flesh, we are pushing the prayers forward, while in the Spirit, we feel caught up in the way the Spirit carries the prayer forward.
Praying in the Spirit effectively and efficiently is experiencing the Spirit of life bringing prayer to life.
“Sometimes praying effectively and efficiently in the Spirit will not feel electrifying at all. It will feel like groaning.”
Effective Prayer or Praying in the Spirit in general terms empowers the prayer and carries it to the Father in the name of Jesus.
The prayer has a living quality characterized by warmth and freedom and a sense of exchange. We realize that we are in God’s presence speaking to God.
The Spirit illuminates your mind, moves your heart, and grants a freedom of utterance and liberty of expression.
It is helpful to acknowledge that there are varying degrees of experience when it comes to praying in the Spirit, and also various hindrances to effective prayer.
Hindrances To Effective Prayer
It does not feel like revival every time we pray in the Spirit. There are varying experiences of feeling carried along or pushed forward.
Sometimes praying in the Spirit will not feel electrifying at all. It will feel like groaning. The Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us according to the will of God (Romans 8:26–27).
I remember going on a bike ride where there was a gradual incline for the first half and a gradual slope down for the second half. I sometimes think of that as the experiential difference between praying in the flesh and praying in the Spirit.
Praying in the flesh feels like an upward climb in which we are having to power up the hill. Praying in the Spirit reflects the reality of the downward slope. Obviously, there are degrees of decline.
But the basic awareness of a downhill energy and momentum are present in all of the different degrees of a downward slope.
How To Pray In The Spirit
When we pray effectively and efficiently in holy spirit, we experience being carried or driven in prayer to God by the Spirit, but how is it done?
3 Keys To Effective Prayer / A Pathway To Effective Prayer
Praying in the Spirit has three aspects:
(1) admitting our inability
(2) enjoying the creation of a living communion with God
(3) praying in tongues
Step One: Admitting Our Inability to Pray
We should start with confession: we must admit our inability to pray as we ought. We must come face to face with our tendency to try to pray on our own. We start with the recognition that prayer is a spiritual activity, and the power of the flesh profits nothing at all.
We should feel our dryness and difficulty and confess to him our dullness, lifelessness, and spiritual slowness and sluggishness.
But this step is not passive; it is the act of yielding ourselves to the Spirit. Confession leads to expectation and prayerful anticipation. In other words, we have to develop a consistent prayer life.
Step Two: Enjoying Living Communion with God
You are aware of a communion, a sharing, a give-and-take, if I may use such an expression. You are not dragging yourself along; you are not forcing the situation; you are not trying to make conversation with somebody whom you do not know.
No, no! The Spirit of adoption in you brings you right into the presence of God, and it is a living act of fellowship and communion, vibrant with life.
Even the bible taught us how to pray. According to Luke 11. Sometimes, when we get confused, we need to know how to pray according to the bible.
The place where you pray seems to be transformed. I start out praying in my living room, and suddenly I sense that I am in the throne room.
“The result of the Spirit’s work is that we bow before God as humbled children of God in awe of God.”
One of the key differences here between praying in the flesh and praying in the Spirit is that you don’t feel the need to rush to say anything when you pray in the Spirit.
The living reality the Spirit creates is the awareness of God’s presence. Experiencing his presence will seem much more important than any petition you are going to make (Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier, 82).
But the Spirit will not lead you merely to rest in God’s presence in a passive way. There will be a holy boldness to plead the promises of God.
Step Three: Praying Using Tongues
A specifically biblical method of praying in the Spirit is praying in tongues. And to that Scripturally endorsed practice we now turn.
[Note for clarification: the Scriptures reveal that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence that someone has received the biblical baptism with the Holy Spirit.]
1 Corinthians 14:2, KJV For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
• Speaking in tongues is speaking “in the spirit”. 1 Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
• Benefits Of Praying In The Spirit/Benefits Of Speaking In Tongues 1 Corinthians 14:2, KJV For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue, in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
• Although “mysteries” to us, they are “in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:27). Praying in tongues, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, is prayer that is in tune with the will of God. 1 Corinthians 14:4, KJV He that speaketh [or prays] in an unknown tongue edifieth himself.
• Praying in the spirit (that is, in tongues, in your prayer language) edifies you, even though you are not conscious of the prayer’s content. 1 Corinthians 14:14, KJV For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
• Praying in the spirit effectively is an opportunity to set our typically dominant intellectual focus aside and pray to God from deep within, at the spirit-to-Spirit level. Our spirit is in intimate contact with the Holy Spirit, where the deepest communion between God and man occurs.
• Romans 8:16, ESV The [Holy] Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit. 1 Corinthians 14:15, KJV What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
• We can have a balanced prayer life, utilizing both our intellect and our spirit, praying in the spirit and with understanding.
