The Spirit

I've been thinking lately more about prayer and I have been reflecting on my study on prayer. It was a very long study (so long I didn't finish it). But this helps you get to know me better as a person.

When it comes to studying something on my own or doing research I go all out. I like to find all the possible information (that is worthy) about the thing i am researching and once I have gathered it all I evaluate it. I am the same with online comparison shopping. I will find many many options for one particular type of item that i want; I like to know my options and I like to find the best one. With this prayer study I found a lot of verses about prayer, because I wanted to find out how prayer is used in the Bible so that I would be able to use prayer better. I found a lot of great verses but i discovered in my research (b4 i started to write the study) that prayer is used for everything. I probably should have stopped there, but because of my personality I decided to press forward. I am glad I gathered all those verses about prayer so I can refer to them later. But if you asked me, "what did you learn from doing you study on prayer in your blog?" I could give you a good answer but not an answer that I would be able to implement in my daily life. And that was the purpose of it - to see how prayer is used in the Bible so that I would be able to pray better.

I do not count it all as lost. I learned a lot. But through my personal time with God and in my prayer life. I have grown to use prayer in the way that it should be - through the Spirit.

Romans 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. 27 And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will.

A couple times recently I have been able to pray through the Spirit. And I say I have been able to because to pray like that I have to be void of myself - and that's not an easy task. But its beautiful. I reason why it is so beautiful is because there is passion. When I prayed I was praying about other people and the reason why it was special was because I had compassion for the people I was praying for. I had that compassion by the way of the Holy Spirit. My heart ached for the people I was praying for. When I am not in the Spirit when I pray it can sometimes be as if I were going to God as if God was Santa and I was sitting on his lap saying "God I really want that person to be saved. Please break them of their sin and remove the rebellion." ---I was just asking, in a normal emotional state. When I pray in the Spirit I am emotional. I am crying and yearning in my voice. Another thing to note is that both times when I have prayed in the Spirit I was praying out loud. [if some of you are wondering how do I get the Holy Spirit and how to I let him flow through my prayers I will talk about that another time]

That is my experiences with praying in the Spirit. What are yours?

I am sharing this with you because I want to acknowledge the importance of the Holy Spirit in prayer, and I think the best way to show someone how to do something is by example.

Now I want to contrast the two different approaches that I have taken to this prayer study.
The first time I was very methodological about it. I did research and studied the scripture looking for an answer. There was a lot of insight in it, but how do you take that and personalize it. How do you learn from that and apply it when you are praying? The answers that i came across through that way may be helpful. But I think it just filtered as head knowledge.
This time I approaching it from a different way. I coming to the heart of the matter. What does God want from us when we pray. He wants us to give Him our heart. He wants us to pour our heart out. So that he will be there to comfort you. Also When you ask for something and you show how much it means to you through your emotions are you not more likely to get your request, than if you asked without emotion?

I challenge you to let your heart spill at the altar of the Lord.