Prayer

Prayer is utterance

eejoseph, ,

You know there are people who believe that without preparation or without study of the Scriptures one can speak intelligently and effectively to people about God and his kingdom. However, since the aim of Scripture is to bring what God intends people to hear, be, and do, we expect our minds to be something more than a blank page. Our most important interaction being prayer, we should recognize that along with preaching and teaching prayer is an opportunity for inspired speech, and not without our mind being active and productive.

We pray with peculiar Spirit help or not at all

Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; (Romans 8:26) and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:27)

Letting God’s Spirit lead

As new born (newly begotten) children of God the Spirit leads the way, saying what we need to say in our new status, primarily acknowledging God and addressing him as Father, as Yeshua did.

But because you are sons, God  sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6)

It is the Spirit who cries “ABBA! Father!” teaching us the new language of prayer.

We may not wish to recognize that the tongues appearing on each head (Acts 2:3) in the Pentecostal Event are a paradigm of all believers empowerment to speak about God, because we have a hang up about people speaking in an unknown language (tongue, in Greek), but how can we deny that praying demands WORDS WE DO NOT NORMALLY OR HUMANLY POSSESSS?

Romans 8:27 says that we pray effectively when we connect with the Spirit’s unutterable groanings. It is not that we have learned the Lord’s prayer, or the prayer of Daniel, or the prayer of Moses. It is that we hear the Spirits groaning, and it is intelligible.  Therefore we should not let the phrase “too deep for words” lead us to think that we pray without our mind being activated.

I am sorry: you need your mind to pray, even though God, the Holy Spirit is praying for you. Notice the following distinction.

THE MIND IS UNPRODUCTIVE when one prays in a tongue

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive. (1 Corinthians 14:14)

THE MIND IS PRODUCTIVE when one prays to edify an assembly

What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing with the mind also. (1 Corinthians 14:15)

See verses 16 to 17 for the full picture of two kinds of praying. Now let us assume that the subject of our prayers is God’s will, and that will is made plain to us from Scripture.  Where else can we be certain of God’s will?

All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

  • To teach
  • To rebuke
  • To correct
  • To train in righteousness
  • To equip for every good work

How then can prayer not be UTTERANCE (from Acts 2:4, I give utterance, αποφθεγγομαι), an apothegm (pronounced “apothem”), special, dignified or elevated speech?

Father, master, lord

eejoseph, ,

If in a court case you called an advocate a prosecutor you might well destroy the proceedings, yet this very thing is a prominent feature of not a few faith communities.  The essential shift in the nature of the relationship between God and humanity is that strangers and aliens become intimate and family.   In addressing God as anything other than “Father” one risks misdirecting ones affections, despises the costly provisions put in place by heaven’s commander.  The actual terms used may not precisely follow Yeshua’s guide to prayer, but when the framework of prayer is not God’s unique fatherhood we pour a whole lot of water on the fire.

Father-God is uniquely Christian

Just so there is no amount of speculation about God’s vested interest in being understood and treated as father even Christ in the Isaiah 9 prediction is called “The everlasting Father”.  The full extent of father-son unity is on display here.  The Father assigns all of his business –  creation, redemption, revelation,  and maintaining the universe –  to the Son.  Everlasting father is a role assumed to be exclusively source and progenitor.

The Tutor-Spirit keeps crying

As essential to the new relationship in which the convert finds himself or herself the Holy Spirit utters the term by which the new child of God needs to relate to the divine benefactor. How difficult can it be to hear the Spirit, who just happens to be always praying for us, crying “ABBA” and address God as Father? Even if one does not use the term father in prayer the attitude and mindset need to be domestic and ancestral.

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Galatians 4:6

God is king but he relates to his children as distinctly as their identity and inheritance differ from those of servants (angels and ministering entities).

I suppose these pictures of the intimacy between God and his Son, God and his human children are a massive challenge to many. We have become so estranged from emulating the divine pattern of interpersonal relationships and communication that it seems strange for God to give his Son a name above all names and exalted him above the heavens. Who does that? I conclude that fatherhood in the spiritual DNA of converts to Christ. You, male or female, will have difficulty living in God’s family if you ignore the fatherly influence of the Spirit crying ABBA.