Praying in the Spirit to Develop Love

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT SERIES

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

TO DEVELOP LOVE

Praying in the Spirit establishes the love of God in us

John. 3:16f For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believe in Him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already. Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The bible talks about how the world fell into sin when Adam and Eve chose the way of the devil. And God since that time has been desirous to reach unto the world to love us. To bring us and draw us back unto him. It is hidden from the knowledge of the angels what God intended to do from the beginning. How he intended to send his only begotten Son to show his love for us.

There are a few more scriptures that we want to look at. Rom 8:31-39 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us form the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oftentimes we see the love of God as just an emotional experience. We see the love of God as just something that touches us. But Paul has a revelation of the love of God. When he says the love of God conquers in Rom. 8, he says we are more that conquerors through Him who loves us. The love of God is not only your personal experience with Him that touches you that melts you down before His very throne. The love of God if you understand, if you comprehend it will draw the power of God into your life to conquer situations that are named here. What are the situations?

Some of us haven’t even been through all these things. You thought you are facing mountains. You thought you are facing deserts and wilderness. You thought you are facing the worse kind of situations; wait till you hear what Paul went through here. In verse 35 he says, tribulations, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. What is he talking about? He was talking experiencing tribulation, going through a hard difficult time, distress, emotional persecution, and having people casting you aside. You face rejection by people. Persecution, they tried to stone him. They tried to kill him. And then he tells us about experiencing famine. When he went to preach the gospel, there were times when he hungered and thirsted. He continues to be faithful to God because God called him. He went through famine, nakedness. There were times when he was shipwrecked. He has a need in his life. But he pressed on. He conquered every situation. He was in danger. He went to dangerous places where even a normal person will not go. He would go and bring the gospel there. This was no coward. This was a man who conquered. If you could have a guy who understood this, if you have a Christian who understands this, the love of God that transformed a person's life, we would have the whole world in no time. If you are a person of such character, you would conquer and be more than conquerors through Him who love us.

Paul tells us in 2 Cor 11: 23 Are they ministers of Christ? - I speak as a fool - I am more: in labour more abundant, in stripes above measures, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils of false brethren; in weariness and toll, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness - besides the other things what come upon me daily; my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? So Paul talked about his life in Jesus Christ. What caused him to do what he did? It was because he had a revelation of the love of God. Even though God’s love was preached to us when we were first born again, many do not understand and comprehend the length, the breadth, and the power of the love of God. It is one of the most powerful revelations that God has given in the new covenant. There are three revelations that are of God. One is God is light. No sin can stand in His presence. God is holy and God is love. And of all these revelations, the first revelation that you can have of God before you can know Him deeply is that God is love. Love comes first and then you understand His holiness. If you see God as holy but you don’t understand His love, you will run from Him. There are many more aspects of God that God has hidden until we are up there in heaven and He will show us more of Himself. But He has revealed just enough of Himself for us. Just imagine if God just reveal Himself, as God is light, that God is holy, in Him there is no darkness. In Him there is no sin. What will be our response? The first response you would do is run. No human being on the face of this earth can stand in the fullness of God’s presence and holiness without His grace and His blood.

If we have never found out that God loves us, and we found out that God is holy, it may make us turn even further off from Him. But God is merciful. John 3:16 is the first revelation that He gives unto us. The first revelation of Himself that He pours into our life is that God is love. If you understand the love of God in your life, if you comprehend and digest the knowledge of God into your spirit man, that revelation of God’s love will draw you near to Him. And I believe if we want to draw people near to God, we cannot preach condemnation. We have to preach His love. We have to preach His grace and His mercy. We have to announce to people His love. Only His love will draw people. You must understand His love first before you understand His holiness. For example if you discover God is love and you are overwhelmed with His love, the next point you will discover He is holy. You will want to be like Him. Do you know that He love you so much? In your condition He loves you and He is such a holy God. The next expression you want is to be like Him. You will be changed to be like Him. We are talking about the heartbeat of God this morning that God is love. God’s love is reaching down to us.

What kind of love is it? Let's consider Rom. 8:31-32 If God is for us, who can be against us. This verse would have been an inspiration of many people in situations where they have to stand alone in God. What was the power behind it? The love of God. Many people do not dare to go into a situation to stand alone in his life and witness because they are afraid of standing alone. Every one of us has an inherent fear from our nature of being left alone, of being rejected. But God has to change and transform this nature to the extend that we would be willing to see God in all His fullness of His love and say if God is for us who can be against us. Then the next point, He who did not spare his own Son but delivered Him up for us all. If He has not spared His Son, will He not also freely give us all things? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Of all the verses in the bible, of all the books in the bible, I believe the greatest blessings that you have is in the New Testament and of all the New Testament books that we have, the one book that reveals the heartbeat of God is the book of John. And of the whole book of the gospel of John there is one verse that reveals and summarise the whole gospel of John that is John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Think about that for a moment. God gave you His best. He did not send an angel. He did not send you a tract and on the tract He says I love you. We wouldn’t comprehend His love. He did not send you a book. On the book He says I love you. God did not send you a cassette tape from heaven. God send His Son, His best. If God gave us His best all that you need to overcome in this life follows after that you will be able to do all things in Him. For Him that freely gave us His Son, how shall He not give us all things? Just based on that verse you would have realised that all your worries, all your cares and anxieties about the life that you are living on this earth do not measure up to this verse. Where it tells us that if you have confidence in his Son that He sent to you, you should be confident that He will take care of you.

Now this is the portion that we are going to go deep in the next passage here. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? He talks about all the difficulties and he overcomes. Then in verse 37 in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. These two conditions are together. If you don’t understand and comprehend His love for you, I repeat, if you do not understand His love for you and experience His love for you, you will not be more than a conqueror. It says and in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who love us. So you cannot be more than a conqueror unless you understand His love for you. So you see here we are more than conquerors, not just a conqueror but also more than a conqueror in Him. But the word says through Him who loves us. Many people cannot be conquerors because they have not drawn in the love of God and comprehend of the love of God. What is the love of God like? What kind of person will the love of God bring?

Turn to Eph. 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you may be rooted and grounded in love. He is praying for Christians. He is not praying for unbelievers who do not even know the gospel and the love of God. He is praying for tongue talking, demon casting, and hand laying Christians. He is praying for these Christians that they will be grounded and rooted in love. You may know the love of God but you may not be rooted in the love of God. You may know the love of God but you may not be grounded in the love of God. He is saying that they be grounded and rooted in the love of God may be able to comprehend with all the saints. That phrase is an important point that we are going to go through. What are the width, height, depth and length to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge? That means your mind and your soul would not understand the love of God. Our mind and our soul will not, I repeat, it says in your bible. You can read it here. The love of God surpasses knowledge. To know the love of God which surpasses knowledge. Isn’t that seemingly outwardly contradiction? It is not. He says to know the love of God, which surpasses knowledge. In other words he says to know the love of God, which you cannot know. Isn’t that amazing? Sometimes we wonder what Paul is talking about. Thank God for the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we wouldn’t understand what Paul is writing about. He says to know the love of God, which surpasses knowledge, which you cannot know, which is beyond knowledge. Then he goes on to say now to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I have been praying and asking God on this verse 18 and seeking how do I comprehend with all the saints the love of God. Look very carefully at that verse there. In verse 18 May be able to comprehend with all the saints. Now this verse has a lot of revelations involved. We cannot finish it today. But I am just giving you a little glimpse of Paul’s revelation of God love. In fact from verse 14 right on to verse 19 there is only one full stop in my New King James. Everything is one sentence. He is so excited about God’s love that he says all kinds of big words. And each one contain of so much revelations. He talked about how we are rooted. Now I want you to get it all clear together. Look at Eph. 3:17, That Christ may dwell in your heart that you may be rooted. So here is the first part. Rooted and grounded in love. After you are rooted and grounded in love. He moves on. The next step here, may be able to comprehend with all saints. The he moves on to the third part in verse 19, to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all fullness of God. I have been praying and asking God on this revelation of his love. I said, "Lord, this revelation of your love is so great. It can transform a prosecutor to a preacher. It can transform a Saul to a Paul. It can transform a rebel to an apostle. It can transform a fisherman to an apostle. It can transform a tax collector to be the Lord’s treasurer may be. The Lord’s apostle."

There must be some power in your love that is released. If that is so how do we release it? How do we comprehend His love? How do we know the love of God, which surpasses our knowing? How do we comprehend with all saints the love of God? And how do we get rooted and grounded in this love? Rom. 8 has a little key that unlocks this. And from that point we will tie back to what we were talking the last three Sundays. In verse 37 when he talks about the love of God, it makes you more than a conqueror. Verse 35 he talks about the love of God that you cannot be separated from. Verse 32 talks about the love of God so great for you that He did not spare his own Son. Now verse 31 says what then shall we say to these things? What things? The things he wrote in verse 26-30. See his conclusion is the love of God. From verse 31 he talks about the love of God. From verse 26-30 he says something after saying those things. He tells us in verse 31 what then shall we say to these things. The things he had said previously. Why are the things he had said previously? Because those keys are important. Verse 26-39 are important for us to understand that this kind of love that could compel Paul to be more than a conqueror. We do not just want to know the what to do, what we ought to do. We want to know how to do it. Its no point we discover what we ought to do when we don’t know how to do it. Its no point discovering what the love of God can do to us if we don’t know how to draw on the love of God in our lives. Verse 26 talks about how the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness when we do not know what we should pray as we ought. The Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. I believe that is prayer in the spirit. It includes groaning and it includes prayer in tongues. Now when you pray very deep in the spirit, you can move in the realm of groaning. But it says here in Rom. 8:26 that you are praying with words, with utterances unto God. Groaning in the Greek it says with utterances that your mind does not understand. There is no doubt about it. Paul never leaves us any doubt that in the book of Rom. 8:26 it includes prayer in tongues. Somehow those prayers in tongues would bring us into the realm of the spirit. Where we would comprehend and know the depth, the height, the length, the breath of God’s love.

And I came before God and say God give me more scriptures. He says turn to Jude verse 20, 21, we are talking about praying in the spirit. Jude 20, 21, But you beloved building yourselves up on the most holy faith. What does he do? Praying in the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing is that the sentence has not ended. After that it tells us verse 21 keep yourselves in the love of God. Here he is saying building yourself up on your most holy faith. Praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourself in the love of God. If we are asked to keep ourselves in the love of God, that means we can walk out of understanding God’s love, of the realm of God’s love. I do not mean that you become a child of the devil. We can walk in the realm of God’s love, know his peace, know his joy, know his love, know his assurance for our lives. And we can walk out of it and be free of any anxiety, worry, doubt, fear, and distress.

How do we get into the realm where we would know the love of God? I give you a secret. It has a relationship to prayer in the Holy Ghost. Because when I pray with my spirit, my understanding is unfruitful. Paul says in Eph. 3 that I may know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. He is actually saying that you will be able to know the love of God with your spirit. Not with your mind. Your mind has to be gradually be taught and build about God’s love. He is saying here that we would know the love of God. His spirit can know. Our spirit can know.

Let me make a few statements here. Lets say you can know something in the spirit that your mind doesn’t know. Sometimes we would know what the spirit wants but our mind doesn’t understand. So sometimes we know without knowing. Our English word is so limited. The Greek has four or five words for the word know and mind. We can know with our spirit but yet our mind doesn’t understand. Paul is talking about our spirit knowing the realm of God’s love. When we walk into the realm of His love, we are able at that realm to understand the length, the depth, the breadth, and the height. I say God what are you talking about the length, the width, the height, and the depth. Have you ever ask yourself that question? We all know that God’s love is immeasurable. We have no earthly measurement for His love. If the bible talks about a height, that means there is a beginning and an ending. If the bible talks about a length, there is a beginning and ending. If the bible talks about a breadth, there is a point A and a point B. So I asked God, "what do you mean by your length, the depth, the width, the breadth of your love." And God told me that when you move in My Spirit, and when you pray in My Spirit, you enter the realm of My Spirit. And in the realm of the spirit God has drawn the boundary line for this planet earth. The boundary line is His plan for planet earth. The breadth for God’s plan for this ages from the beginning of the world to the end. See this world has a beginning and this world has an ending. It is only in this life on this earth there is a beginning and an ending. In God there is no beginning, no ending. So here on this earth from age to age, from east to the west, north to the south. From the depths of the earth to the height of the earth atmosphere. The length, the height, the depth, the width of God’s plan for this earth is waiting to be revealed to the one who waits for Him, who comes into His Spirit's presence. By praying in the Holy Spirit, you see God’s plan and purpose for this earth is so great that you cannot comprehend it with your mind. You can only pray in the Holy Spirit and then through your prayer you will enter into the realm of the Spirit. And in the realm of the spirit, you can walk the length, the heights, the depth, the breadth of what God has in store for His church on this planet earth. Keeping yourself in the love of God. Praying in the Holy Spirit.

Why then did the apostle Paul talk about in 1 Cor. 13 where he mentioned tongues without love? If he talks about tongues without love, then there is a tongue with love. It is very simple. 1 Cor. 13:1 If I speak with tongue of men and of angel but have not love I become a sounding brass or clanging symbol. That is tongue without love. In verse 4-8 Paul then describes what the love of God is. Then he says in verse 11 When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part. But then I shall know just as I also have known. And now abided faith, hope, love, these three. But the greatest is love. Don’t stop at that chapter. Read the first verse of the next chapter.1 Cor 14:1 Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. In other words Paul is saying the Corinthians have an experience of tongue. They have been baptised in the Holy Spirit. They have some gifts of the Holy Spirit in their life. And there was great confusion in the church. So that there are some people who have the gift and pray forth in tongues. But they are not using it the way God wants it to be used. And Paul was actually writing this letter to teach them that this tongues is to bring them into the realm of love. See he is telling them that their tongues can be just empty. Which is what is happening. Many people received tongues but they keep it at home and pray 15 minutes a year. Some don’t pray at all. You get baptised in the Spirit. You go home, praise God I got it. The rest of the time never talk in tongues anymore. We are missing the point.

Paul is telling the Corinthians tongues are to flow into the love of God. Tongues will bring you into the realm of His great love. He says here in 14:1 pursue love. He is writing this to tell them that they can with tongues move into the realm of His love. They could pray in tongues without love. He say you can also pray in tongue with the love of God in your life. And he points to the realm of worshiping God. Many people think that Paul stops at chapter 13. In chapter 14 he moves deeper. And he talks about worshipping God with tongues. Worshipping God with your understanding, worshipping God with tongues. Moving into the realm of tongues. And in chapter 14 he says I pray in tongues more than all of you. See he has moved into the realm of tongues and entered into His rest. When you are at rest the Father Himself comes and He loves you. You experience His love over again. And as you experience His love again you get recharged. You get a stronger anointing. You get an endowment of grace. You receive His blessings in a greater measure. And you walk out of that place a mighty conqueror. It all starts with praying in the spirit.

The Lord once showed me a vision when I was having a three-day total fast without food or water. In the vision there were two mountains. There was a mountain on my right and there was a mountain on my left. And on the valley between the mountains, there was a great huge building. The building was not completed yet. You could see the pillars. The pillars were so thick that about ten to fifteen people could stand on one pillar. That was how big the pillars were. And there were many huge buildings. I saw some people whom I recognised. They have gone to be with the Lord. I saw some of these men of God standing on those pillars. On the pillar they were waving at me, telling me to come and join them. After I got up from that experience the Lord told me the two mountains represent His first coming and His second coming. The building represents the church. And the pillars represent the prayers of the saints. Prayers are the foundation stone on which God builds the building. First are the pillars that hold the rest of the building together. And through the years I begin to understand how to enter into the depths of prayer. God said that in these last days, before every great revival of power and harvest of souls and the demonstrations of the five fold ministry, there is always preceding it a great revival of prayer. So God is saying call the people to pray. Let the pillars of the church be built forth. And then the rest of the walls will come forth. But the pillars must come forth first.

HOME I INDEX I PRAYER REQUESTS SITES I LINKS I CONTACT US I TOP