By Pastor Doug
 
In 1 Corinthians 14:15 the apostle Paul is teaching about his personal prayer life. He says “… I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” He had already explained what praying in the spirit is about in verse 2. He says the one “… who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.”
 
I’m sure you have noticed that life is full of surprises. Thankfully, there is a lot to enjoy and appreciate, but there are also a lot of ups and downs and extreme difficulties and challenges that come our way and we need help getting through. Paul was no stranger to these things. He experienced worse things than most Christians ever will. He was beaten, stoned, whipped, chained, imprisoned, shipwrecked and more. Yet he knew how to tap into a supernatural something that helped him continue to serve the Lord and fulfill his calling. That supernatural something was unlimited prayer.
 
It is my experience with prayer that when praying about certain situations I am often limited by my natural understanding about how to pray. I will pray with my understanding about it but then feel like there is more that needs to be said. I’m so thankful in my early Christian training I was taught about praying in the spirit, that I can pray in the spirit in other tongues when my natural words and understanding seem limited.
 
When we pray in the spirit, it is us linking with the Holy Spirit speaking a spiritual language that only God understands. I learned early to trust what Paul said about it is true, that “he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.” It is a surrendering of the will and mind to God. This makes my prayer life so much easier, so like Paul, I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. How about you?