Praying in the Spirit 2

We've seen in my last article, Praying in the Spirit, how praying in the Spirit bypasses the mind, and how our mind is what limits us...and what limits God's power in our lives. Hebrews 3:19 says 'So we see that they [the Israelites] were not able to enter [the Promised Land] because of unbelief. Unbelief is in the mind...

David said it another way in Psalm 78:41 [NKJ]...'Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.'

And how did that make Him feel? Read the same verse in the NAS version: '...and pained the Holy One of Israel.'

He was pained, not happy, when they limited Him! He wasn't glad that they stayed poor and homeless and wandering around in circles...the very opposite of His milk-and-honey-and-fruit-as-big-your-head-and-houses-you-did-not-build-and-vineyards-you-did-not-plant Promised Land!

Remember when Jesus returned to His hometown? Instead of returning as a prophet, his neighbors were full of unbelief. That's Mary and Joseph's kid, Jesus...who does He think He is?

Read Mark 6:1-6:

1 Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him.
2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?
3 "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon ? Are not His sisters here with us?" And they took offense at Him.
4 Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household."
5 And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.
6 And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

Everywhere else He went, the Bible says He healed them all! Why? Because the people that came out to Him believed in Him and in His power...and according to their faith, it was done for them. There are lot of posts on this blog that have more detail on this subject--my point here is to focus on how the mind can limit God, and why praying in the Spirit is a God-given workaround. The shortcut of all shortcuts, if you will!

Abby Who?
Remember the movie Young Frankenstein? If you haven't seen it, my apologies to your funny bone...but anyway, in it Igor [pronounced Eye-gor] goes to the brain depository [HA!] to find a brain for Frankenstein's creature. He drops the one he was told to get, the brain of a deceased genius, and picks up the glass jar labeled 'Abnormal.' Because he's not too bright, or maybe he can't read--I don't pretend to know how Mel Brooks thinks--he takes the abnormal brain home to his master. After the creature goes berserk, Young Frankenstein asks him whose brain it is. Igor replies, "I don't know, Abby Someone...Abby Normal."

What does this have to do with the topic at hand? From God's POV, our un-renewed minds are abnormal. That's why He tells us to renew our minds, because then and only then we can prove HIs good and acceptable and perfect will in our lives! [Romans 12:2] Just like the Israelites and the citizens of Jesus' hometown, we can't access what we can't believe!

Yes, everything already belongs to us! [See All Things, Stop Begging--It's Inside! for more detail.] But we can only access what God has provided by His grace by our faith!

And we can only do that with a renewed mind! Unless, of course, there's a shortcut...

Go ahead...take your brain out, place it in the Abby Normal jar beside your bed, and pour the water of the Word on it to wash it. While it's out for cleaning, pray in the Spirit, unfettered, unrestricted...limitless, all-things-are-possible prayer.

What About Reason? Rationality? A History Lesson...
Since the lion's share of what we call reason and rationality is based on cultural lies and theological heresies, what about it? Historians tell us that, during the past 2000 years, rulers allied with the church to control the peasants...that would be you.

In essence, the kings and nobles told the Church rulers '...tell them God wants them poor and hard-working...poverty is a blessing. While you're at it make sure they don't find out how powerful they really are. Tell them that servitude and sickness is their lot in life, and they'd better like it, too, or they'll be Bad Christians. We'll let you live like us and rule beside us if you do.'

Of course, that strategy eventually came back to bite the kings and nobles in the butt because the Church decided it would tell them to jump, and how high, or excommunicated and executed they would be!

This blend of horse manure was passed down by Good Christian to Good Christian, until it became entwined with everyday thought. And since the Church controlled education, that got infected, too.

There were, of course, free thinkers and scientists that questioned the status quo. They knew by observing God's natural world that the Church's blather couldn't be right. They were persecuted and jailed as well. Then they got smart...they decided that scientific thought should be completely divorced from theology, which resulted in the science vs God mess we have now. [Of course, now that Quantum Physics is proving the Bible, I guess that turned out okay anyway...]

But they went even further...they belittled faith, and proclaimed that true thinkers could not possibly believe in an outdated concept such as [g]od. So it became rational to think in scientific, logical ways only. Anyone who attempted to walk by faith was branded a simpleton, or worse...a lunatic.

Why the historical overview? Because your mind has been soaked in it for years, and your parents' minds before you, and their parents before them, back to Jesus! These deceptions are hundreds of years old.

A Lie by Any Name is Still A Lie
We've fallen for the lie that faith is a choice--you can be a nut or you can be smart--a logical, rational thinker. But what are you thinking? The same bulloney [sp] that the Church has fed all of us for two millennia...you can only do what's possible in the natural, you must be realistic, you can't count on God, everybody's got to be sick sometime, children die, the only path to riches is hard work and a lucky [blessed] break...unless of course you're born on the right side of the tracks to the right family, are beautiful/strong/smart, etc etc. Only rationality and lots of hard work will save you...

The 'all paths to God' philosophy is great...but only if it's true. If it's not true, then every decision based on it is wrong. It's like following directions to a location...you'll only get there if 1) the directions are correct, 2) you start from the right place, and 3) you follow them correctly. If you made a left instead of a right, you'll end up in the wrong place, no matter how great the directions were or how logical they sound. If you've started from the wrong place [assumption]...bingo! Wrong again! Belief systems based on lies are still wrong, although you can pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that all paths are equally viable.

The bottom line is that God's universe works by God's laws. It's a faith-based universe because He is a faith God. And faith works by Love...God is Love! You can believe it or not believe it--it's your choice, and one thing is certain: God is all about free will.

I will tell you this: if you don't work the system, the system won't work for you. Or, in the words of Dr. Phil...how's that working for you?

So What?
Now that you know what the un-renewed mind is full of [no pun intended] you know why it's of very little use to the Spirit that is One With God. Your re-born Spirit knows exactly what to do, exactly how to do it, and what's coming next.

But your self-exalted, infected mind is always pushing it's weight around, threatening your self-image...'if you do that, you'll be a weirdo, or worse--not cool! It won't work anyway, and you'll have thrown your chance away to do things the right way...the logical way. What will people think...What are you, a religious fanatic?'

Such so-called logical thinking restricts you to only what you can do, all by yourself, in the natural. How fast you can run, what school you can get into, how attractive or smart you are, what connections you have, whether you get the lucky break, how much money you have, etc. That's it.

The realm of faith, however, opens you up to an all-things-are-possible-to-you reality, where there are no restrictions, save those imposed by Love.

Back to You
Once again, it's your choice. In Deuteronomy 30, God sets the choice before us...

15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
17 "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,
18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
20 by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Verse 19 is the big hint. 'Pssst, pssst...pick life, dummy!' [translation by Fred Sanford]

An important aside here...v.15 shows us how God looks at things. He equates life with prosperity, death with adversity. Seems like we got that kinda reversed somehow. I wonder how that happened...

So This...
Renew, bypass or be pushed around. Those are the choices you've got with your mind. Left un-renewed and out-of-control, you can bet it's lying to you. You--the real you, the Jesus inside--needs to start pushing back. As conventional wisdom would have it, the only way to stand up to a bully is to push back!

Don't get me wrong...the mind is a beautifully designed part of the God-created, God-like man. But if it's not renewed to the truth, it needs to be put in it's place. You're either thinking like God thinks [see Think Like God] or you're not. There's really not a lot of in-between.

The wonderful thing is that your spirit knows everything already...you have the Mind of Christ and Jesus has been made unto you Wisdom. But it's not in your physical brain, it's in your spirit. Your re-born spirit is One Spirit with the Lord. [1 Corinthians 6:17] As He is, so are you in this world [1 John 4"17] and you have an Anointing from the Holy One that teaches you all things. [I John 2:20,27]

Everything belongs to you already--you are His joint-heir, and He is the Heir of all things.

Finally...
So were does this rant end? It ends with praying in a Holy Spirit language. And by the way, If it doesn't sound like a language, it probably isn't one. Frothing at the mouth gibberish isn't what I'm talking about.

Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit by faith. Then start to speak. If it sounds like a made-up language from your childhood, don't worry. Keep it up. See what happens the next time you open your Bible...WOW!

And don't forget...when God prays, He decrees! When He prays through you in tongues He is decreeing wonderful things for you in His native language...the language of Heaven! The really great thing is that you know in advance that HIs decrees come to pass!

So take advantage of the System...the great Workaround. Pray in the Spirit...pray continually, and watch your life change!

When you don't know how to pray, pray in the Spirit! When you're feeling hopeless and impossibilities abound...pray in the Spirit.

When you don't know what to do...pray in the Spirit!

It's like God the Father gave you the answers to all of the problems on the test...pray in the Spirit! He is, in fact, showing you the shortcut to every situation...pray in the Spirit!

No, Really, I'm Stopping...I Can't Stop!
1 Corinthians 14:4 says 'One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself...' The Greek word for edifies is oikodomeo...meaning to build up from the foundation, like building a house. To restore, rebuild, repair...to found or establish. To promote growth, to grow in wisdom.

That sounds pretty good to me! Pray in the Spirit!