sokin's devotional 6

ephesians 6:18 - "and pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests..."

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We have the freedom to come to God with any and every request. He is our loving Father, and He draws near to listen to our voices. Simply talking with Him brings Him delight.

BUT, we must pray, in the Spirit.

I take this to mean that while we are able to bring any request to God, praying in the Spirit is like a pre-requisite to praying effective prayers.

Being in the Spirit implies that I acknowledge His presence, am surrendered to Him, and I desire to be directed by Him (Him, being the Holy Spirit - He is a person!)

Thus, being in the Spirit, allows us to come to God with true freedom, to bring every request to Him. Our prayers will be rid of useless, and trivial pursuits and we will begin to pray with the mind of God, for the glory of God. We will pray like Christ, as honest as He was when he asked to "let the cup be taken from Him," .. but not as 'He' would but as 'God' would. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.."

I loved Pastor Kim's example during Korea Conference this past summer.

He said something along the lines of:

"You must ask the right questions. Don't ask stupid questions. Dont ask things like, "God, why wont this girl like me..?" If you pray in such a way, it is then that you will experience the famous 'silence of God'..."

Be filled with Spirit when you pray and you wont ask torturous questions that will never be answered. :)