Introduction
In an
earlier Bible study called Prayer part 1:
What, Why, and How, we learned from the Bible we are to approach God
recognizing His existence, mercy, power, faithfulness, and righteousness.
Because of these, we are to approach Him with reverence, pray to Him only, and ensure
our prayers give testimony of God. The question this current part of our study
considers concerns the physical/spiritual action required. Yet approaching God
cannot easily be separated as just physical and spiritual. Each facet of a
person’s approach of God involves more than one part of the person’s self. How
do we approach God and be with Him? Eleven verses in the New Testament teach about this.
Prayer – Communing with God through the His Spirit
Before His
death and resurrection, Jesus told His disciples what was to come. He explained
He would be arrested and crucified. When the disciples expressed fear and
unbelief, He comforted them. Jesus told them He would ask the Father and the
Father would give them another helper to be with them forever (John 14:16-17). This
Helper, He said, would be the Spirit of truth that only believers can receive
because they know God and He abides in them just as God abides in the Son.
“Helper” comes from the Greek word parakletos and means one who pleads
another person’s case, who is an advocate and intercessor for, and who leads
the person to a deeper knowledge of God and the gospel. This Helper is the
Spirit of God who abides continually in the heart of the believer and
intercedes for the believer with the Father in heaven, just as Jesus did for
His disciples while he lived on earth. The Spirit, Jesus stated in verse
twenty-six, will teach believers all things and bring to remembrance all Jesus
said. He will encourage, remind, and make strong believers as they live on
earth after Jesus’ resurrection and before His return.
Paul
spoke of the Spirit of God regarding prayer. In Romans 8:26, Paul said, “In the
same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as
we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for
words.” He stated the Spirit is our intercessor to God. Earlier Jesus said the Spirit
would be our teacher, encourager, and would abide as the presence of God within
us. Now Paul teaches that the Spirit can speak for us to our Father when we are
communing with Him and do not know how to put into words our heart, mind, and
spirit. God’s Spirit joins with our spirit and conveys to the Father the depth
of our appeal and emotion. This joining of our spirit with the Father through
the Holy Spirit is the ultimate
expression of communing with God. Truth, pure love for God and humankind,
adoration and worship, and petition combine to flow between the Father and His
child, the believer, through Holy Spirit.
Paul taught
the Ephesians in his writing of Ephesians 6:18 that prayer and petition at all
times should occur in the Spirit. As we commune with God, prayer should occur
through the Holy Spirit that abides with each believer when he or she becomes a
child of God. In this passage that Paul wrote the Ephesian believers, he
expressly taught as they put on each piece of the armor of God, they should pray in the Spirit for God’s guidance,
protection, and glory, not only to protect one’s self. The fight for each armor
bearer is not for life and death – flesh and blood, but for eternal salvation
for all people and righteousness. It was a fight to stand firm against the
schemes of the devil…against “the rulers, against the powers, against the world
forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the
heavenly place.” (Ephesians 6:11-12) Victory requires God’s full strength which
requires continual prayer/communing with God that comes through the Spirit, our
intercessor.
Prayer – Communing with God with Your Mind and Spirit
That
section title sounds like an elementary and trite statement. It sounds so
fundamental that one wonders why it needs consideration. Yet, Paul spoke on it
and the writer of Daniel regarded it in Daniel’s life. What is necessary beyond
bended knee, bowed head, and folded hands like children are taught by their
parents and Sunday School teachers?
Paul
wrote to the Corinthians speaking to them concerning spiritual gifts and
speaking in tongues. His basic point was if a person’s speaking in tongues is
not followed with an interpretation of what was said, then it is not of the
Spirit since it does not edify a person in the church. This word spoken in a
strange tongue does not enlighten or improve anyone’s understanding of God and
His truth when no interpretation is given. Since the Holy Spirit is given to
each believer to teach, instruct, admonish, and encourage, then the word spoken
in a strange tongue could not be said to have come from the Spirit. Paul said
this in 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 when he said, “If I pray in a tongue my spirit prays,
but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit
and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing
with the mind also.”
Paul
brought this lesson to a personal level. He did not intend it only to teach the
whole church body. Paul recognized for a person to pray to God that person must
connect with Him in both body and spirit. Because God is spirit, we speak with
and worship Him in spirit. Yet we must remember we are more than spirit. God
made us with minds, hearts, and bodies. For a person to be taught that person’s
mind must be engaged. When Moses spent the forty years in the desert with the
Israelites, he continued to teach them who God was and what He was doing so the
Israelites would see, perceive, recognize, know, and relate to Him. In the same
way, when a person prays to God, the spirit of the person should be one part of
the person to commune with God.
Paul
said if his spirit spoke in tongues to God and his mind did not, what he said
to God did not edify his mind. He did not grow in his relationship with God
because more than his spirit is involved in his relationship with God. That was
what Paul meant with his rhetorical question in verse fifteen. Paul realized
praying to God involved more than the spirit for him to know God better and
grow his relationship with Him. That is why he stated after this question, “I
will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also. I will sing with
the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” Praying to and communing with
God requires more than one part of our being. Here Paul taught our mind and our
spirit must join in communion with God. A person who wants to commune with God
must approach Him with his or her whole being – heart, mind, body, and soul.
The life
of Daniel teaches this same lesson. The messenger from God who spoke to Daniel
expressed Daniel set his heart on understanding God and His vision. He humbled himself
before God and sought understanding. In Daniel 10:12, the writer records the
messenger saying, “Then he said to me, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the
first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling
yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to
your words.’”
The
messenger spoke of a “heart understanding” by Daniel. Daniel sought knowledge
for his mind that would affect his heart and the way he lived. He desired to
know God’s mind and understanding on what was happening to him and the
Israelites of the time. His earnest desire to know God’s will and understanding
shows how the heart and mind often cannot be separated when considering a
person and what is important to him or her. Daniel communed with God through prayer
seeking His knowledge. He humbled himself before God. His communing with God
involved his head, heart, and spirit. With the messenger’s next words, we
realize Daniel’s commune with God involved him physically, through his mouth.
Daniel spoke to God, and the messenger arrived to speak to him because of his
words to God.
Daniel’s
prayers to God, his communing and seeking God, involved his whole being. He
sought God and His understanding while approaching him with humility and
genuine care. Daniel approached God with his physical being by speaking his
heart to God with his mouth. Most probably, in his humility, he bowed before
God in his seeking for heart understanding and God’s wisdom. Daniel was an
effective prayer. He communed with God, and God heard and answered him.
Prayer – Communing with God with Your Body
Communing
with God involves all parts of a person’s being – heart, soul, mind, and
strength (physical body). Just as Daniel did not pray with some of the parts of
his being, most people, when truly communing with God, commune with Him through
their whole being. Daniel used each part of his being when praying with God in
Daniel 10. David recognized the need to commune with God in multiple ways, too.
In Psalm
19:14, David said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.” This verse shows us
David recognized his commune/prayer time with God came not just from his heart,
but form his mouth. He recognized praying involved his body – his mouth to
speak – and his mind and spirit through meditation. David recognized a physical
side to communing with God. From one’s mouth most often comes what is in the
heart; however, that is not always the case. Sometimes the mouth speaks from
the mind only to flatter the hearer and gain something for self. This type of
prayer is self-motivated and not motivated on wanting to commune with and know
God more. Self-motivated prayer comes from a person’s desire to get something
out of the prayer he or she says.
Jesus
recognized these types of prayer when he explained a parable to Peter and the
other disciples. He said what comes from the heart that determines if a
person’s actions, words, and attitudes are God-glorifying. If a person’s heart
is not right and truly seeking God, then the words the person utters do not
bring them to a closer relationship with God.
Jesus expressed this in Matthew 15:18 when He said, “But the things that
proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man.” (Consider
also Mark 7:20 and Matthew 12:34). The heart (intentions and motivations) matters
and the words reflect the heart’s condition.
What
does this say concerning the rote prayers we learned as children or “baby”
Christians? Are they deficient or self-serving? The rote prayers we learned as
children and seekers or new believers in Jesus Christ are good prayers. They
teach us how to pray to God. Yet, if those prayers are said as an appeasement to
us that we have said our prayers today so we are okay with God, then
·
We
have not grown in our relationship with Him since we were children or baby
Christians,
·
We
are not truly communing with our Father,
·
We
are not becoming more Christlike, and
·
We
are stagnating.
Jesus told His disciples not to be like the
Gentiles who use meaningless repetition (Matthew 6:7-8). Jesus said,
“But when you pray, go to your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentile do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”
Some
of the rote prayers we learned that you may still use and that could be
“meaningless repetition” could be these –
Ø
“Now
I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before
I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
Ø
“Bless
us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we have received from Thy bounty through
Christ, our Lord. Amen.” or
Ø
“God
is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food.”
Each
of these prayers is a worthy prayer. They teach us to seek God for protection
and to realize God is the protector of our souls. These prayers teach us to
recognize the blessings we have come from God and to thank Him. These are good
prayers. Yet if all you say to God is this and you pray only when you awake, lie
down, or eat, you must ask yourself if you are truly praying/communing with
God? Are you growing in your relationship with God? Have you truly asked Christ
to be your Lord and Savior?
Prayer – Communing with God as Jesus Taught
In the Lord’s
Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus calls God Father. He teaches believers to recognize
God as Creator and the Provider of all things. Jesus helps believers understand
and address God as the Father of our selves who are born again through the
atoning death of Jesus Christ. Giving God the title of Father was an honor reserved
for those who taught and led the Israelites from their wisdom and experience. This
title applied to God means approaching Him with the understanding and
acknowledgement of His superior wisdom and understanding.
Within
the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to recognize God’s greatness. He
is greater than them and anything they can see or imagine. He created all they
see. God lives and reigns in heaven. Recognizing this requires a heart
acknowledgement of one’s smallness and God’s greatness.
Jesus taught
His disciples to recognize God the Father is their Provider. He gives
everything people need for sustenance and survival. His children can go to Him
with their physical needs. They can know His power reaches to all nature to provide
food for His children. People can approach Him physically with their words and
their physical needs.
Jesus further
taught God is greater than our spiritual selves. He is holy and almighty. God
has power over sin and death and can forgive sin. He will forgive the sins of
the people who confess and seek His forgiveness. We approach God with our
spiritual selves and are taught to practice the mercy God gives us by forgiving
people who have harmed us.
We further
recognize and approach God with our spiritual selves when we recognize because
God is holy, He has the power to keep us from sinning, from falling to
temptation. He can deliver us from evil. God wants us to seek Him to avoid
temptation and sin. By doing this we do not sin and can be in His presence. This
means approaching God with our heart, soul, and mind. We must choose to let God
be our Lord so we walk in His ways.
Prayer – Loving God with Our Whole Being
When we
are in a growing and loving relationship with God, we learn to love Him with all
our being – our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus taught this in Luke
10:27 and God taught this to the Israelites through Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5. Communing
with God – praying to God, reading His Word, listening to Him from His Word and
from His shepherds, and meditating on what He is saying – requires the desire a
love relationship gives. Just as our love for our spouse, children, or parents
makes us want to listen to, speak with, and help them, our love for God should
lead us to do the same with Him. Active communing with someone involves our
heart, mind, and strength. Active communing with God requires these, too, as
well as involving our spirit. Our spirit is joined with His Spirit, our
intercessor, when we become His children upon our profession of faith in Jesus
Christ and our confession and repentance of sins. Communing/praying to Him
without our spirit would be like have hot cocoa without the cocoa powder. It’s
just not communing.
Relevance and Conclusion
John
4:24 tells us, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit
and truth.” To truly love God and be in a growing relationship with Him, we must
love Him as Jesus taught, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. To approach
God as a person of effective prayer requires we approach Him with our whole
being – with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
v
We
must pray in the Spirit, the Helper, who came from Jesus when He ascended into
heaven – our spirit speaking through His Spirit.
v
We
must pray with our minds, recognizing God for who He is – Father, Creator,
Provider, Savior, and Redeemer.
v
We
must pray with our hearts recognizing God’s greatness and our smallness, bowing
ourselves in humility before Him.
v
We
must pray with our physical beings speaking with our lips and bowing with our
knees and heads recognizing almighty God.
Loving
the Lord God with all of who we are is communing/praying with God. Without love
of God, we would have no desire to truly, genuinely commune with God. Communing
with God is praying. It is speaking and listening to and for Him.
When
did you last seek to be with God?
When
did you last pray to Him, genuinely pray to Him?
It’s not
too late to seek Him now, to reach out to Him with your whole self. God
promises He will forgive you. Yes, anything you put in your life above God
means you have sinned against God. Yet John said in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess
our sins, He (God) is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Come
to God.
Seek
Him.
“When you seek Him, you will find Him when you search
for Him with all your heart, soul, and mind.” (Jeremiah 29:13)
Receive
Forgiveness.
Commune with God.
