PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT SERIES

PRAYING EMPOWERED BY THE

LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE

Let's turn to the book of First Thessalonians 5: 17 pray without ceasing. We realize that there must be more than praying from the time you wake up till the time you sleep. We know that in life to carry on praying 365 days a year is not a practical possibility. There are a lot of things to do and be responsible in life to fulfill. So there is a deeper meaning than what is superficially meant. And what Paul is bringing forth is there is a certain level and consciousness of that spirit of prayer that can prevail upon our lives every day. Unceasingly not only when we are awake but when we are asleep.

We all realize that there are spiritual sensations that we have familiarized ourselves with. When you have prayed through the night with God, you sense that the carry over of the atmosphere of prayer sometimes lasts for days. Its just like in the natural you had a good rest. Then your energy has been rejuvenated and you could do a lot of work. Supposing that you have a lack of rest, a lack of sleep, and tremendous work pressure on you. Your energy level in the natural is lowered and things feel a bit depressing. But yet when we leave the presence of the Lord there seems to be His fragrance that continues in our lives and it lasts. And if we have a regular life of fellowship with God that fragrance is upon our lives all the time.

But it's more than fragrance. There is something deeper than that that Paul is trying to express here. It is the spirit and atmosphere of the practice and of the presence of God? Brother Lawrence hundreds of years ago tapped into that when he wrote a little tiny book called the Practice of the Presence of God. Where we could develop the presence of God upon our lives 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from our prayer life. It seems to condition our spirit, our soul and our body to the presence of God where ever we are, what ever we do.

That presence can be lost. We are not talking about whether God is actually there or not. God is everywhere. But our consciousness of Him is not always there. But if we have enough of the word, enough of the prayer life with God that consciousness is there all the time what ever you are doing. Even though you are a teacher teaching math's and your mind is solving the theorem, yet at the back of your mind is the consciousness of the flow of His presence. That's what we are talking about. There is an unceasing flow of prayer life towards God. There is a prayer atmosphere that literally causes your spirit to be in full communication with God. It is the experience of being in the heavenly places with Christ, which is the practical part of what the word says we are seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

To understand that we need to analyze it a little deeper than that. All thoughts are affected by spiritual gravitation. In the natural world we have the force of gravity. The force of gravity will pull natural substances down. But there is a point where you could break that gravitational pull where you are a certain distance away from the planet earth. You feel what the astronaut call weightlessness. But before that point that gravitational force pulls you although you don’t feel it. And in the natural realm when astronauts who have lived for a year or so in space come back the scientists examine them to see what physical changes have been made. And they found that because they have so long without gravity the body is weaker. The muscles have deteriorated and every thing is weaker. They have to develop a series of exercises that the astronaut had to carry out every day.

They have the opposite effect of what we call the divers' bend. When they do deep sea diving, they go into the water and because of the high pressure of the water the body absorb more oxygen and nitrogen. If he spends a long time in deep sea diving and he suddenly emerge out into normal sea level air pressure, they would straight away die. Because the oxygen and the nitrogen that was stored inside the blood system would suddenly be released and there would be air bubbles formed in every part of the blood system and they would just die. To prevent that before the diver gets back to normal room air pressure, they would be put in a room where they slowly decompress the air.

So that is in the natural. We need that for comparison. Unknown to many people in the soul realm all our thoughts are affected by a gravitational force. Your thoughts either lift you up or pull you down. Thoughts that are in the natural and in the flesh would slowly pull you down. You could feel the pressure of that thought pulling you down. We are talking about prayer. There is a level where your thoughts are pulled downwards and you try to pray upwards. You cannot succeed in praying. The gravitational pull upon your thought life and your soul life is pulling your spiritual life. There are thoughts that ascend into the heaven. There are thoughts that drag us down.

From the time you wake up until the time you sleep your mind is filled with thoughts. If 90% of those thoughts are in the natural realm there is something that begins dragging you down. You could go to any prayer meeting or you could try to spend your time in prayer in your private life, you would feel the pressure of going out from it. It is like you have gone into deep sea diving and now you have to be decompressed before you could ascend back into the normal realm. So there need to be a breakthrough realm. And that happens when some people pray and they don’t seem to make a break through while another person can pray the same prayer over the same subject and they get an instant break through.

And so here there is a force that pulls our thought life down. In the book of Colossians 3: 1 If then you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above not on things on the earth. Allow only the thought patterns that come from above and then you will be able to pray successfully. If you come to a prayer meeting with many of your thoughts being pulled by that gravitational force of the natural realm and of sin, you will not pray very well. The law of sin and death pulls you down. The other law is the law of spirit of life that lifts you up. When an airplane flies there are two laws that operate. One is the law of flight dynamics that cause the plane to be lifted. And that is tapped on by the shape of the plane and by the velocity the plane moves in against the pull of gravity. And so the plane needs to balance between the two. In a similar manner we are being subjected to these two laws everyday. The law of the spirit of life is operating in our spirit and the law of sin and death is operating in the world. It is present in the world. It is present in the papers. It is present in the news. It is present in the radio. Every word spoken in this world, every thought that is thought in this world, every book that is written, everything that is a product of man is either a product of the law of sin and death or the product of the law of the spirit of life. It either liberates and lifts us up or it would pull us down according to the mindset we have.

There has to be certain mind set that we have. A certain frame of mind that we must have before we can successfully pray forth. One of the keys to achieve that mindset is in what Paul says thanksgiving. You notice that before Paul could pray he always have to give thanks. Lets examine Romans 1 first. In verse ten it tells us he makes request. Making request if by some means now at last I may find the way in the will of God to come to you. The reason is that he may impart to you some spiritual gifts. But before he does all these things in verse nine he tells us he also without ceasing make mention of you always in my prayers. However before the prayer in verse eight. First I thank my God. See before you can really succeed in praying through. Your mind has to be a mind that has a certain set frame of reference. That has to be something done to your mind first.

The only block for us to move in the spirit world is our mind. Doubts are the results of the mind. The very word doubt comes from the Greek word that tells us the "diakrenosis" which is a word means a judgment or a reasoning opposing the word of God. It is the mind that is blocking us from the spirit realm. Before we can break through into that realm we must have a certain frame of mind. Paul knew how to get it. The key is he knew how to get that frame of mind. First I give thanks. He gave thanks and thanksgiving brought that frame of mind and then he starts masking intercession. That occurs many times so that we cannot miss it out. It is always in order thanksgiving then prayer.

First Corinthians 1: 4 says I thank my God always. Eph. 1:16 Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayer. Phil. 1:9 in this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. But look at verse 3 and 4. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy. Notice he says I thank God for you all. So he knew how to move into that frame of mind. Col. 1:9 for this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you. But verse three says we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you. Look at the pattern. It is always thanksgiving then prayer. Now the question is why thanksgiving. Well you can say I enter into His gates with thanksgiving and enter His court with praise. Yes, but why. See it is not just for God. It is for us. It does something to us. The thanksgiving sets us into the right frame of reference where like the rocket taking off we break the gravitation pull of the law of sin and death. And we break into that realm where we are no more affected by that natural law that pulls us down and we have lifted up. The lift has pulled us up into the law of the spirit of life. And only when you move in the spirit of life can your prayers be successful. That is why the bible says he that hides their sin, their prayers will not be heard. If you live in sin no matter how you pray no matter how you fast, you are under that law. And that law prevents your prayers from being answered. Prayers are answered only when we live in the law of the spirit of life.

John G. Lake in one of his books spoke about the plague that affected the whole area in Africa. And the people were dying like flies by the thousands. There were not enough of undertakers. He had to bury some of them. And the doctors were also helping to bury the dead. Then after some time they asked John what antidote he was using. And John told them to take a little bit of that froth that comes out from one of the persons who died. See when they died of that plague they have froth coming out from their mouth and it is full of germs. And they took that and put it under the microscope and they saw all those germs. And he says watch very closely what happens now. And as he put his finger there the germs died. They say what is that. He says it is the law of the spirit of life.

And whenever you move into that law you pray for the sick there is success. When you pray for the lost there is success. When you pray for finances there is success. When you pray for open doors there is success. When you pray for anything there is success because whatever you ask is heard. It depends on what law is governing you now. There is no halfway point. There is no sitting on the fence. There is no halfway in the kingdom of God. Either you are in the kingdom of light or you are in the kingdom of darkness. You could be a child of light and live in darkness. You are potentially of light but you are allowing the law of sin and death to pull you. There are only two laws. The law of sin and death and if you live in that forget about success in prayer.

We are talking about how to move into that realm to live in the law of the spirit of life 24 hours a day. So that you could just get up from your bed and you could say to the storm cease and the storm will cease. Why is it that some people cannot do that? When they wake up in the morning and there is trouble around, the storms are rising and the waters are flooding their boat. And they say, "Hold it. I need to spend one hour in the Lord first before I can do that." They have not tap on what Paul said praying without ceasing. You know the story when Jesus Christ was in the boat. And the boat was crossing the Sea of Galilee. The storm came and Jesus was sleeping. The disciples woke up Jesus. Jesus did not say for this case I need to spend one hour in prayer. I mean He lives in the law of the spirit of life. He wakes up and said to the storm be still and it was still. We are talking about the truth of living in that law of the spirit of life.

Let me say honestly very few Christians live in that all the time. A lot of Christians live in and out. Sometimes they live under the law of sin and death. And their prayer life is being affected. They fall into it yet. But it is slowly pulling them down. All you have to do to fill that law of sin and death is to neglect your devotional life, neglect your prayer life and spend all your life in the natural. Just occupy yourself with the worldly affairs and that law of sin and death starts pulling you. You feel the effects of it and you could not pray successfully.

We are talking about the principles to live in that realm. There are certain keys to live in that realm. One of them is what I call understanding the mind of Christ. The other realm that we are talking about here is the same and is linked to prayer here. It’s the atmosphere you have when you break through in prayer. You know how it feels when you break through in prayer. That you have broken the law of sin gravity, you are free. And in that stage one word of your prayer is powerful enough. Why do people's prayer take so long to break through. In the first place the first part of breaking through is breaking the law of gravitation pull of sin and death. And they pray and pray and it takes two hours for them to pray through.

Here we have Paul showing us how to move into that realm thanksgiving. There are many other passages but we are showing a few. Phil.4:6 Be anxious for nothing. Why is that because if you are anxious you, you are worried and you are lying the law of sin and death to affect you. Anxiety is fear in disguise. Fear is born out of the law of sin and death. You could smell it you could feel it in people's voices. I believe Jesus have no fear for perfect love cast out fear. The mind that Jesus has and the life that Jesus lived did not have as single gram or ounce of fear. But the average Christians have a lot of doubts and fear. If you could ever reach a point where there is no doubt in any area that's when success starts coming especially when it is in line with the word. The problem is doubt and having the Christ mind. Now here it says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. It looks like thanksgiving is an important part to your prayer and supplication going through. Be anxious for nothing but by prayer and supplication make your requests known. He qualified it by prayer and supplication. But he says with thanksgiving. In other words thanksgiving is the key to allow you to really enter into the prayer and thanksgiving.

There are about three Greek words for the word pray. We want to look at one of them which is "prosocomia" and it means a pouring forth until you reach a different realm. You literally pour yourself out and you break through into something. And what prayer is in essence is a life of prayer helps us to continually live in the law of the spirit of life. "Prosocomia" is constantly pouring forth of ourselves in God ascending into the heights of heaven. Living in that realm all the time. So you are unaffected by the law of sin and death. Whatever happens is that the world may fear the world may tremble but you are not affected because you are living on a different law.

It is like the difference between sparrows and eagles. Eagles step on the air current that rise and they just glide. They set their wings and they glide. Sparrows have to flap all the time to over that law. What God wants us to do is to ascend into the depths and heights of prayer and thanksgiving. The word thanks and thanksgiving in the Greek comes from the same root word for the word grace. The word thanks is also the same word "karis". So to give thanks is actually to acknowledge the grace of God in all that has happened and in all that he has done. That's possibly how it developed into saying grace as thanksgiving. For it is the same Greek word. And when we give thanks and live in the atmosphere of giving thanks, we are positive. You can't give thanks and be negative. Giving thanks focuses your mind on what God has done. Giving thanks focuses your mind on the positive things. Giving thanks focuses your mind on all the lovely things.

Literally what Paul says in Phil. 4 things that are lovely, things that have virtue, things that are good, you focus on. What is he talking about are thoughts. There are thoughts that ascend into the heights of heaven. It causes your mind to be set into the heights of heaven. When it says in James chapter five that Elijah prayed earnestly is the word "prosocomia" another word he poured himself forth and he broke through into that realm of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Now with all these things we examine 1 Thessalonians 5 again. And notice that verse 17 is sandwiched by two verses. Verse 16 and verse 18. Verse 16 says rejoice always. Now that is positive. Then verse 18 in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So therefore the verse 17 praying without ceasing refer to the frame of mind that you have in prayer when you have a break through. Which is associated with rejoicing and associated with thanksgiving. When you rejoice and you give thanks like Paul did, you will bring your mind to the point that you will break through the law of sin and death. And he is there in the law of the spirit of life. Then he says he begins praying.

I am sure you sense a difference if you just tap in from your office where perhaps you have been working for four hours in the natural realm. I mean it is not falling into sin yet. All you did is to concentrate in the natural realm. Or if you step into this place and you have been spending the whole day reading the newspapers and listening to all the bad news. And you just come in out of duty pray a prayer. There is no power in that prayer. Through exposing yourself that much to the things of the world and opening your thought life to them, you have allowed the gravitation pull to pull you down. You need to pray through first before you can really pray in that realm with success. Might as well be honest and say I don't have the spirit of prayer yet. Let me just spend some time with the Lord. And you spend some time with the Lord. Then you are ready. There are some things in the natural life that you have to do. If I happen to have a very busy schedule then besides that I am dropping down at the supermarket. Then at the supermarket you bring this prayer request and say brother will you pray for me. I will be honest with you and say I can pray there and then. But why not you come at a certain time where I have set my heart, my mind into that realm. I could break through for you. See the difference. We are talking about anointing but it is more than that. It is about having the practice of the presence of God and about the mind of Christ where you could have it with you all the time. I am beginning to break into that and beginning to learn that.

If you have been spending a lot of time in the natural. You could be very honest. You could just mumble a very weak prayer. It's the source from where the prayer is. Either from the law of sin and death that is pulling you down or the law of the spirit of life that gives you the power to pray. Let me illustrate with what some of these people in the bible do when they pray. In the book of Acts 9:38 And since Lydda was near Joppa and the disciples had heard that Peter was there they sent two men to him imploring him not to delay in coming to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all out and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said Tabitha arise and she open her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up. Now verse forty here is misunderstood many times like this. When people read it they always see Peter coming into the room and then Peter perhaps laying his hand on Dorcas and starts praying. No, he never touched Dorcas. The first thing he did when he went in he moved everybody out. Then as he was alone he prayed. The word is "prosocomia" which means he really poured himself out. And as he poured himself out he reached a point when what I call you break from the law of sin into the law of the spirit of life. You know you are in the spirit of life. You are completely conscious of that. When that happen he turned around and said Tabitha arise. It is not a magic word. Some people read and then they read the Greek they think it is a magic word like "pesto". So every time they had a prayer they lay hand on somebody and say "Tabitha". It actually means damsel.

The question is why must he pour himself first before he prays. It is because he has to move into that realm until he is fully conscious of that realm. If you read Smith Wigglesworth's book it talk about times when there are these needs that are before them. And they know they need to tap into the spirit of life in a greater way than they are tapping. They would not do anything. They would just pray through until they reached a frame of mind or a consciousness and an empowering in the Spirit. When they know that they are in that realm they would turn. And when they turn one word is enough.

You know the reason why some people cannot do it in one word. Why some people they cast out demons they take so long. They had to shout nine hundred and ninety times before those tiny demons disappear. Have you prayed for a leper before? Jesus just said two words be cleansed and he was cleansed. Now there are man and woman of God who move into that. Some of us have tapped into that realm once in a while. The thing that we are teaching is what is that realm. That realm is the law of the spirit of life. When you are in that realm one word is enough. You are full of the law of the spirit of life. You are moving into that realm totally free from the law of sin and death. You would go and you would know the consciousness and the frame of mind that link you to the Spirit and you just go in Jesus' Name and it would have to be done. Why is it that some people shout and scream at the demons and the demons don't obey? But others would just say come out and they will come out. The difference is where are they in the spirit realm, whether they are being affected by the law of sin and death or by the law of the spirit of life. Some are just breaking free. Some have broken through and they are no more affected by it.

And Jesus lived in that realm. That's what Peter was experiencing and he prayed through. We realize that any one who has been moving in the Spirit or in the anointing of God also move in the realm of miracles. The difference between a miracle and a non-miracle is a fraction of a second. Or can we call it just a thin line. The difference between Peter walking on water or sinking is just a thin line. Whether he doubt or he believe. It is his frame of mind. And the difference between a miracle happening and a miracle not happening is just a thin line. And we learn to walk in that realm. We learn to walk in the authority all the time.

Long ago I saw a video about Jesus preaching. And as He was preaching half way a storm came and poor Jesus had to run because of the storm. He went into a cave and continued preaching. They should show Jesus walking in harmony with nature and with God. And I want to move into that realm. Sometimes I go for a walk and when the storm cloud comes I said Lord I know I am in your perfect will. I have consecrated my life to you and today this is my walk with you. I said rain you are not supposed to come until I finished this walk. And as I have finished my praying and entered the door, five minutes later the rain came. That's the law of the spirit of life. You walk in perfect harmony. Nature abides in you. The law of sin and death, sickness, disease, germs everything that pulls you down does not affect you. You walk in the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are above all these natural laws. That's the law that Jesus walked in. We need to live in all the time not just once in a while.

Let's look at Acts 28:8 We see here Paul and all the 276 people were shipwrecked in the island of Malta. When they were on the island collecting wood to burn on the fire, a poisonous snake bite Paul. He just took the snake and shook it in. The snake burned and they were watching Paul. Human beings are so fickle minded. At first they say he is a terrible fellow. He must be a real crook that nature is punishing him now. But after some time he is still alive. They changed their mind. He must be God because he didn't die. So you cannot trust the crowd actually because they are still influenced by and subjected to demonic influence.

You can see that also in other portion like Acts 14 where when they healed the lame man. In Acts 14 Paul shouted stand up on your feet. The man was healed and all those fellows brought all their sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas. And said let's sacrifice to them. This must be Zeus and that is Hermes. They thought they were gods. But when the Jews came and poison their minds. They were the same guys who stoned Paul. At one point Paul is a god, and at another point he is the devil.

In Acts 28:8 the father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery. Look very carefully of the chronological order of things. Number one Paul went in to him. Number two he prayed. Number three he laid his hands on him. It is not number one he went in, number two he laid hands, number three he prayed. Now that would be the order most of us go by. But Paul went in, prayed and laid hands. First he gets into the Spirit. See when you tap on the law of the spirit of life and death, you know things by the Spirit. If you are moving in that law you walk in the room and you can know the faith level. You walk into the room and you know what people are thinking. Not that you read their mind but you could sense things in your spirit. Your spirit searches the spirits of others through the Holy Spirit. You know things in the spirit. You know whether there are hindrances or not. So Paul prayed and he moved into that realm. Knowing that there is no problem here, he just laid hands and it is done. He understood how to move into that law.

There are other times when tapping into that law brought powerful results like Acts 16. Here Paul and Silas were in prison. Verse twenty five but at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. The prisoners were listening to them. They kept their frame of reference. They kept their mental frame of mind. Do you know what satan want to do when he throw circumstances at you. He wants to knock you from your frame of mind that you are set in. We have to have a certain mindset. We have to have the mind of Christ in us all the time. Yielding to the mind of Christ. And if you refused to be moved by circumstances and set your mind like the mind of Christ and be fearless, loving, humble but in touch with God, conscious of righteousness in your position with God, worshiping and most of all thankful, and if you keep on in that realm something has to break. There will be an avalanche of the law of the spirit of life to break every barrier of the law of sin and death. And they kept up the praise and there came this powerful shaking from heaven. It was a demonstration of God's power and that very night the jailer was converted. All because of the demonstration of God's power.

Jesus lived in the law of life so powerfully that the bible tells us in Acts that His flesh saw no corruption. Although He died, His body was not corrupted. Acts 2:27 Because you will not leave my soul in Hades nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. That word corruption refers to the natural realm of corruption. Then you say how did Jesus take our sickness and disease? Many times when people preach and teach they like to imagine that when Jesus died on the cross every sickness and disease was on Him. If that is so then no amount of linen could have clothe Jesus. If you have those sicknesses you could see it there on the cross. But the carrying of the sickness and disease was a legal act. The right of sickness and disease to come on us is a legal transgression of Adam. Jesus took the curse of the law (Romans 7). It was done on the legal grounds. Because He was sinless therefore sickness should not come on Him. But when that came on Him it was for us. In the spiritual legal sense He has carried all our sicknesses and diseases. In practical teaching and in bible scriptural view Jesus had His perfect body, side pierced, hands pierced and the thirty nine stripes on His back. And His body saw no corruption. No germs, no worms, nothings could touch His body because that body has been soaked in the spirit of life. Legally He died for us and became sin for us. When Jesus was resurrected He received a new glorified body. What Jesus showed us is something that He opened the way for His church to live in. I believe if we began to learn to tap on the law of life in Christ Jesus we will begin to understand the translation process of Enoch. We will begin to understand that realm where we could live perfectly not only without sin but without sicknesses, without diseases, nothing of this world can affect you in the spirit, in the soul or even in the body. And you could reach a glorified stage where you could walk like Enoch. The key lies in the law of the spirit of life. The key is the frame of mind.

We have a different frames of mind depending on the amount of time spent with God, depending on the level of the word in our life, depending on our spiritual growth. Why is it that three people can go through the same situation but if they gave the same command, they will yield different results? It is because of the different levels in the law of the spirit of life. Some are still bounded by the law of the sin and death. We need to be free from that with a frame of mind that we maintain all the time. And I call it the mind of Christ. To think as Jesus think. Would Jesus allow your thoughts to go into those areas if you were having His mind? Imagine what Jesus will be thinking in your situation, in your circumstances, facing those mountains that you faced, what would Jesus be thinking? Then you allow the mind of Christ to come into the situation. Paul says in 1Corinthians 14 I will pray with my spirit and I will pray with my understanding. So the mind must come in harmony with our spirit and have a break through into that realm.

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