Thoughts for Life: #69 God's Spirit Teaches You the Love of Prayer

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: The Holy Spirit teaches you the love of prayer, the wise and appropriate content of prayer, how to pray in the Spirit.

These spiritual things are Spirit-taught and spiritually discerned by those who are Spirit-filled (1 Cor. 2:14). Spiritual sensitivity, spiritual perception, spiritual longings, and spiritual warfare are all deep things of God that are taught by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 2:10) (Google image, Praying-in-the Spirit , What does praying in the Spirit mean?)

But the Spirit teaches only what is in the will of God. He never gives holy hunger for anything outside God's will nor prays through you for anything but what is God's best for you.

If you pray for carnal desires, the Spirit lapses into silence within you. Spirit-filled persons suddenly realize that something is wrong. They are praying on their own. There comes an inner hesitation, a gentle restraint of the Spirit.

The Paraclete is saying by His silence,

"I can't endorse that prayer. Jesus can't 'amen' that
prayer. You may mean well, but you are missing
My purpose and will. Wait, wait, and I will help
you see a better way, a better prayer."

As you delight yourself in the Lord, you begin to understand more and more clearly what pleases the Lord and what is His will. The Holy Spirit, your loving Teacher, will help you to know God's will, rejoice in God's will, long for God's will, and pray for His will.

You would not truly or deeply desire anything that you knew was contrary to God's will. God can then give you the desires of your heart because they are one with His desires (Ps. 37:4).

Without total commitment to the will of God, known and unknown, we cannot be filled with the Spirit. Until we are filled with the Spirit, He cannot exercise His full role as Teacher in our praying.

In a very real way, the deepest prayers of the Spirit-filled person come from the Father, by the Spirit, to the praying one and then are returned from his or her heart back to the Father by the Spirit and are "amened" by God the Son.

It is the joy of heaven to hear believers praying in the Spirit.

When praying in the Spirit, you are always praying in harmony with God's Word, for the Spirit guiding you in prayer is the One who inspired the Word. There is blessed unity of the Spirit, the Word, and you as you pray.

The Spirit always teaches you to love and be guided by the Word and to lay hold on God's will and purpose as revealed in the Word. Thus, nothing excels prayer in the Spirit in bringing glory to God.

God's glory is your primary desire; God's goodness for others and for yourself is secondary.

The carnal Christian and the natural man are comparatively untaught by the Spirit. Prayer often seems so baffling to them. Sadly, self-will, self-centered desires, unwise requests, and shallow praying are about all that many people know of praying.

They can never enter into the Spirit-taught life of mighty prevailing prayer until they make the total consecration and commitment that can lead to the Spirit-filled life.

Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana (Italics added)

Mighty Prevailing Prayer

#69 God's Spirit Teaches You the Love of Prayer

by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 111-112) Zondervan

Prayer change things:Why it's
Important to pray everyday
(Google image)

Let's pray-

Father, we understand now, of our great need to ask for Your Spirit's help in our praying, as we believe He can, and will, enable us to pray more effectively.
May His desires become ours, and may we connect with Him to petition You for the needs we have.
Cause us to be open for teaching from Your Spirit within us, and may we be quick to respond to His leading.
I ask this in the Name of Jesus, who bought our salvation through the sacrificing of Himself for us on Calvary's cross. Amen.

Today's Bible verse-

Titus 3:5 (KJV) "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior."

Today's quote-

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: "Our nature is created to be set ablaze by the Spirit. We are spiritually most blessed, most victorious, most usable when we are ablaze. We are most Godlike when we glow with holy flame - the flame of the indwelling Spirit.

The fire of God gives an unforgettable attraction to the personality of God's messenger and to the content of his message. It imparts a sacred authority that cannot be counterfeited by human efforts. It so seals with the mark of God that others are unable to ignore it. It gives a holy authenticity and assures of integrity. It impresses with the obvious involvement and partnership of God.

Whatever the cost, we must keep the flame of the Spirit burning on the altar of our hearts." (From Dr. Duewel's book, Ablaze For God, p.26- found in the Nov. 2016 Herald of His Coming magazine article).