Copyright © 2023 Michael A. Brown
‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.’ (Eph. 6:18-20)
‘Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.’ (Col. 4:2-4)
The apostle Paul was a man of prayer, just as the other apostles certainly were too, and they all understood and knew from experience the central and vital role that prayer plays in the life of any believer. This is clear from the many references that Paul makes to prayer in his epistles. He encouraged, exhorted and insisted that young believers everywhere should get hold of two basic but powerful truths: that building a life of intimacy with God in prayer is our primary call as believers, and that this lies at the heart of all success in church life and ministry. Men and women down through the centuries who have been significantly used by God in ministry have always been people of prayer.
For the early church, prayer was not a matter of the repetition of rote phrases in a mechanical, formal or liturgical manner. For them, prayer was always to be rooted in a Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered life, a life in which the Holy Spirit has free and consistent flow within and through a believer. So it is a life in which prayer in all its forms flows freely out of regular intimacy and closeness to God, and is empowered by the active working of the Holy Spirit in our life. It presupposes that we know what it is to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and to be walking consistently with him.
This was the expected standard for prayer which the apostles themselves practised, and which they enjoined upon young believers as an essential part of their ongoing spiritual growth and discipleship. Prayer was never meant to be formal, religious, or spiritually flat and dead. It was expected to be living, vital, empowered, heart-felt, free, inspiring and encouraging to others, flowing naturally and unhindered out of a Spirit-filled life. This is how God would have prayer be.
This is what Paul meant when he referred to ‘praying in the Spirit’ in Ephesians 6:18-20 (see above). Paul’s recognition of the potential of Spirit-empowered prayer to bring about breakthrough and victory in situations, is clear from his five-fold emphasis on prayer in this passage, and from his repetition of the words ‘all’ or ‘always.’ He makes a similar repeated emphasis on prayer in the parallel passage in Colossians 4:2-4 (also above), and Jude too encourages us to ‘pray in the Holy Spirit’ (Jude v.20).
Whether it is a group of believers wrestling in prayer together well into the night for the release of Peter from prison (Acts 12:5-17); or whether it is two persecuted apostles praying and praising their way to breakthrough in the middle of the night in a jail cell in Philippi (Acts 16:25-26), or whether it is simply the private praying of an individual believer (Col. 4:12), empowered ‘prayer in the Spirit’ is a major key to spiritual victory.
There are at least four ways in which ‘praying in the Spirit’ can manifest in a believer’s life: praying in tongues, Spirit-inspired praise, the prayer of faith, and the inward groaning of spiritual travail. This second blog in this mini-series deals with Spirit-inspired praise, as below.
2. Spirit-inspired praise
The welling-up and free flow of inspired praise to God from deep within the human heart is one of the basic signs and concomitants of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of praise, and so, when we are filled with him, our heart becomes a headstream out of which praises to God flow freely:
‘…the Holy Spirit came on all heard the message… For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.’ (Acts 10:44,46; cf. 2:47)
The apostle Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to keep themselves consistently in a state of being filled with the Holy Spirit. His words below literally mean ‘be being filled with the Spirit.’ Consequently, he says, their daily life and their corporate gatherings would be characterised by freely flowing, Spirit-inspired praise, much as king David also experienced:
‘…be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything…’ (Eph. 5:18-20)
‘I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips…’ (Ps. 34:1)
As a form of prayer, free and open praise plays an important part in many Christian gatherings in our own day, particularly those which are of a charismatic or Pentecostal variety. Giving ourselves the freedom to openly and freely express our praises to God (whether this is on an individual or on a corporate level) gives freedom to the Holy Spirit to operate and work within and amongst us. The presence of God which thus accompanies free and open corporate praise and worship is therefore often strong, tangible, inspiring and edifying. And as with praying and singing in tongues – or, better still, combined with them – it brings us into a place where the Holy Spirit can work freely amongst us to minister to people in a variety of ways (as I described above).
Therefore powerful, Spirit-inspired praise can bring breakthrough. Not just in terms of freely experiencing the presence of God amongst us, but also in terms of breaking chains of spiritual oppression and bondage. Our spiritual enemy cannot endure freely expressed praises to God, especially in corporate gatherings of believers, so his grip and oppression of people’s lives weakens and can be broken.
Paul and Silas experienced this in a remarkable and wonderful way when they were held overnight in the jail in Philippi, consequent to having cast a spirit out of a slave-girl earlier in the day. They did not allow the flogging they received and their chains to depress them into self-pity, rather they resolved together to freely and openly pray and sing praises to God well into the night, while they were in their jail cell. These praises broke through the spiritual darkness which was attempting to oppress and overcome them, and it moved the hand of God powerfully in an earthquake which flung all the prison doors open and set everyone free from their chains, resulting in the conversion of the jailer and his entire household:
‘About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening go them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.’ (Acts 16:25-26)
Another example of the power of Spirit-inspired praise happened on the occasion when king Jehoshaphat sent out his army to fight the enemies who had invaded the land. He specifically placed singers at the front of the army, whose role was to sing praises to God as they all went forward:
‘After consulting with the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendour of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.’ (2 Chr. 20:21-22)
It is significant that it was when the men began to sing and praise that God began to fight on their behalf, bringing about a resounding victory. This underlines the important role that praise plays among God’s people. It releases the power of God to work, bringing breakthrough and victory over our spiritual enemy.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.