Praying in the Spirit

If you had told me a few of years ago that I would be talking about praying in the Spirit, I would have laughed. I didn't have a clue what that meant, and didn't really know it mattered.

I also didn't realize how important it would become in my life. When I experienced a back injury in 1989, my life took an entirely new path. I had always been very active physically, and very involved in diverse activities. I knew the Lord at a young age, and spent quite a bit of my time in church activities. I was active at school and worked at least two jobs at a time once I graduated from college. My days and evenings were full most of the time.

When I was "forced" to lie down and wait for my back to heal, my world came crashing in on me. I, for the first time, could not run. My mind was not preoccupied with busy-ness, and my body had to be still. I spent many weeks not able to sit or drive, and going to Physical Therapy for traction. Being "tied down" to a table and unable to move was torture for me...in more ways than one. As I lay there, visions of horrible things came to me, my low back pain became unbearable as it spread through my pelvis and into my abdomen. I thought I was hallucinating, and blamed the medicine I was on. I saw men with dark hoods on their heads surrounding me. I smelled a strong scent of smoke, and I heard a chanting sound.

As time went on, I was less and less able to dismiss these "visions"-- and the alarming sense of something familiar was getting stronger and stronger. I would not accept the thought that maybe these were memories...they were too horrible to be real. In fact, I was more willing to accept the idea I may be going crazy than I was to accept that they may be true memories.

Months later, after much prayer, and help from a committed Christian counselor, I decided to let God reveal whatever He had to tell me. It was then I learned to pray in the Spirit- even though I had never heard that expression before. I ran across a passage in my Bible reading that changed my life:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. Rom 8:26-27

I asked the Spirit to pray for me- because I had no idea what to pray about. I told God I would accept whatever it was He was trying to tell me. That was years ago, and I can look back now and praise God for all He has done in my life and through my experiences. Yes, those were memories surfacing when I was in traction. The pain I felt was the pain I had felt as a small child being raped by a group of evil men. The men were a group who gave their allegiance to satan, and were using me as part of their worship. God, in His great mercy, allowed me to tuck those memories away in a safe corner of my mind until I was at a point in my life to deal with them. He has since used my experiences to be a ministry of help to others. But without the gift of being able to let the Spirit pray for me, none of this would have happened. I would have chosen to not remember, and not deal with any of it. I would not have accepted the pain nor the experience as something God has allowed. How could it have been humanly possible for me to forgive those men of such atrocities? I could not have - except for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

One of the best things that has come to me is being able to look back at all those memories and thank God for the experience. That is not a human thing! Only the Holy Spirit could have taught me how to do that! If I had not gone through what I had, I would not have experienced the power of God in an entirely evil place. I would not have known for a fact that there are angels all around us, fighting on our behalf.

I would not have learned so powerfully how the Spirit can speak the words for which we have no language . Speaking to the Father through the Spirit is speaking to Him in a language only He understands- and only He needs to understand. It's a communication on a spiritual level. It's a gift given us, as His children, to draw us closer to Him and to build us up,..to "edify" us.

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 1 Cor 14:4

Secrets (mysteries) are revealed to us as we pray in the Spirit. We may never be able to put them in a human language, but we know them. I'm not talking about speaking in tongues to a church or something---I'm talking about one on one praying to the Father through the Spirit. It is not "of God"...it IS GOD SPEAKING THROUGH YOU. It's letting go of trying to find just the right words to say- and letting the Spirit say them for you through your voice box.

I encourage you to read through 1 Cor 12-14 several times in the context of this, and ask the Father to reveal the truth to you. Spend time with Him alone, and let Him draw you into an incredible experience with Him! You will never be the same again. (1 Cor 14:1 "eagerly desire spiritual gifts" )

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