Author: Dr. Mark D. Flattery 

Chapter Twelve

Victory Action #9: Pray in the Spirit

 

“‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.’” (Zechariah 4:6).

 

The missionary stood at the fork of the Tanzanian road deep in the bush and in front of a man who held the information that could save the life of the Grandma in his vehicle. Just a few minutes before, the woman was sitting at the edge of tall, thick brush but with her feet stretched out in the dirt path. A vehicle drove by and caught her by such surprise that she was unable to react quickly enough to move away. Sadly, it ran over her leg and left her foot dangling from her tibia.

The missionary, who was driving the vehicle behind the accident, stopped immediately and sought to provide aid. The woman went into shock instantly. Instinctively, she attempted to put her foot back in place and applied mud to her injury as if to glue her body back together. The missionary knew that her life was in jeopardy and that she needed to be in a hospital immediately. But, they were in the heart of the country and finding medical attention would be an amazing miracle. So, the first step he did was to do what he had be trained to do; he prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to give him wisdom.

Suddenly, the woman’s grandson appeared, as if out of nowhere. While the missionary spoke Swahili, he did not speak the local dialect of the Grandma. But, the grandson spoke both and so served as the interpreter. The grandson had heard that there was a hospital not far from the accident but he did not know exactly where it was. While the two vehicles went north, the missionary prayed that they would find someone who could provide directions.

This led them to the fork in the road. At this point you had a fifty-fifty chance of guessing correctly but the wrong road would lead them kilometers out of the way and the Grandma might bleed out. The vehicles stopped and the missionary prayed. Then, he noticed a man seated by the side of the road on the right! In Swahili, he asked the man for directions to the hospital. Without hesitation, the man pointed to the road on his left. When the missionary took a step towards his vehicle, the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart and said, “That is not right! Ask the

grandson to ask the man in their local dialect.” The missionary did just that and had the grandson ask for directions. Immediately, the man pointed to the road on his right!

Believing now that they had the proper directions, the two vehicles took the road on the left and discovered within fifteen minutes a hospital with an amazing medical team. The operation on the Grandma began within the hour and her foot and her life was saved.

 

The beauty of Victory Action #9 Pray in the Spirit is that you do not overcome your trials and rebuild on your own. If only you ask, you can have the Holy Spirit of God, the third member of the Trinity, as your counselor, teacher, guide, and proclaimer of Truth in your life. He will give you strength to stand firm, equip you to thrive in a victorious lifestyle, and empower you to help others in their most difficult spiritual battles.

So, throw off the mindset that you are self-sufficient and that you can battle alone. That kind of thinking may have contributed to your personal drama and limits you to respond properly. Instead, ask the Lord to take control of your life in a deeper way. The Apostle Paul instructs us in the last section of Ephesians 6:18 with this, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” You have directives in this verse.

First, you are to pray! Talk to God and ask that His will be done in your life! In fact, Jesus told you to pray this very prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

As we consider this briefly, we can highlight key elements of this prayer. First, you are talking to Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth. There is none greater, stronger, or more faithful. He is the very definition of Love. He is so awesome that His name is, “I AM”

(Exodus 3:14). Second, every time you interact with God, you must give Him honor, and glory, and respect so you say hallowed (or, “holy”) is your name. You are the inferior being addressing your Superior with humility and respect. Third, we declare that we what His will be done and therefore, He is the Master and we are His servants. Four, you are then instructed to ask the Lord for His provision to bring the victory for your physical needs, for matters of your heart, and for victory over sin. Five, repenting and receiving God’s forgiveness is an amazing gift of freedom that clears your conscience and propels you forward to walk in victory. Remember, God is also your Heavenly Father and He will pour out His blessings on you abundantly to overflowing! So, no matter if your personal drama just started or if you addressed your defensive deficiencies and are now advancing in your offensive strategy, going to God and asking for His will to be done in your life is the best move you can make.

Second, you are to pray in the Spirit! Paul’s instruct is not to just pray but to pray in the Spirit. This means that you ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit; heart, mind, and soul. When the Spirit dwells in our lives, we are empowered with the very presence of God. We will discuss this more in a few moments.

Third, you are to pray in the Spirit on all occasions! Prayer should be your first response and not your last resort. Pray for wisdom, guidance, creativity, answers, help, advice, blessing, divine appointments to share your faith, opportunities to bless others, healing, daily provisions, future plans, your family, freedom from the chains of sin that so easily entangle you . . . and the list goes on.

Prayer should be your ongoing conversation with the Lord. Sure, you pray in church but you pray also at home, in your car, at work, on the bus, at meal time, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, when you first awake, and even before your nightly sleep. The Lord is

your friend who wants, and deserves, to engage you at all times. Prayer keeps you aligned properly in your relationship with Him.

So, pray about everything! Pray ALL the time! You do not rebuild your life on your own nor should you use your own blueprint. Get God involved and follow His will and you will be amazed at what He will do in your life. Seek to glorify God the Father, to obey God the Son, and to be lead and empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

Since prayer is a relationship with God that involves listening and speaking, acting and reacting, Victory Action #9 Pray in the Spirit means that we are in submission to God so that His Holy Spirit empowers us for His glory. Your relationship with the Holy Spirit is just as vital to your spiritual growth and maturity as it was to the disciples in the first century. Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were baptized by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4, 5). He then said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In other words, do not go anywhere or do anything until you are first empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The disciples waited, as recorded in Acts 2, and the Holy Spirit was poured upon them individually in an amazing way. These believers were then empowered and emboldened to change their known world so effectively that this would resonant throughout history to this very day. As we read the book of Acts, we see how the Holy Spirit worked in the lives of believers. The Spirit was their Counselor and Comforter. He was the One who gave them clarity to see and hear the will of God. He gave them the strength and boldness to be obedient to God’s calling and to stand boldly in proclamation before even the fiercest of foes. He brought to their memory the teachings of Christ so that they would stand firm in His spiritual authority. I encourage you to read the book of Acts in one sitting with the intent of observing how the Holy Spirit enabled

and empowered the disciples to do God’s will and for His glory. The vibrant relationship between the Holy Spirit and believers in the Acts is available for the taking for you today!

Here is what you can do now. Ask the Holy Spirit to take control of your life completely; heart, mind, soul, and strength. The starting point is to pray Psalm 139:23, 24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Open the entirety of your being, empty yourself of anything, small or large, that will hinder the move of God in your life, and allow the Spirit of God to fill you to overflowing. In fact, read all of Psalm 139 and you will glean a clearer understand of the meaning of those final two verses of this great chapter.

As you grow in your relationship with the Holy Spirit, you will discover new adventures with the Lord will open and that your character will develop to be the person that He created you to be. The Apostle Paul wrote about this in Galatians 5 as he taught us about living in the fullness and freedom of a relationship with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. In the beginning portion of the chapter, he teaches that Christ brings freedom from sin and spiritual bondage. The quality of our walk with Him is not determined by our ability to keep rules and regulations set by our religion but by love; “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6b). The power to live in love comes through a relationship with the Holy Spirit as seen in the last half of Galatians 5. Paul teaches that the sinful nature, our former self, is contrary directly to life in the Holy Spirit.

Paul continued with the acts of the sinful nature: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). These self-centered, self-serving, and self-gratifying behaviors lead to spiritual death! Thank the Lord that

we are freed from this! We can throw this off, like filthy rags, and toss them in the rubbish bin. These are the very acts that led to our personal drama and our being knocked to the canvass of life in seeming defeat!

Genuine life-changing spiritual freedom comes when we purpose to change. We allow the Holy Spirit to take residence in our heart, mind, and soul and we ask Him to empower us to walk and talk and act and react like Jesus. When we activate Victory Action #9 Pray in the Spirit in our lives daily, we will see what Paul calls, “the fruit of the Spirit” overflowing from us and onto everyone we encounter and in every situation of life.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (Galatians 5:22-26).

So, once you receive freedom from the ways of our old nature, the flesh, you can replace them with the fruit of the Spirit. Each day, and at each encounter of day, you can pause and ask, “What should be my loving response?” You can learn to life in the joy and peace of the Lord. In fact, Romans 15:13 tells us, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Leaning to trust the Lord reaps a personal harvest of hope, joy, and peace. I encourage you to consider each aspect of the fruit of the Spirit and seek to active it in your daily routine. At first, it may seem awkward but after a time it will become so natural that the fruit of the Spirit will be embedded into your character!

I remind you that the power you need to fulfill the Victory Actions we have discussed does not come from within you or from anything that you can manufacture. The power you need

to be the person God created you to be comes from an intimate and daily relationship with the Holy Spirit. Like it says in Zechariah 4:6, “’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

As you move forward to live in the fullness live as a follower of Jesus Christ, you can stand firm against temptation knowing that you have “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” You can go beyond saying “NO!” to our spiritual enemy by responding in a way that solidifies your faith in God by living in the Spirit and keeping “in step with the Spirit.” The spiritual goal that we each strive to obtain is to be like Christ. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to embrace His thoughts as our thoughts, His teaching as our life game plan, and His will to be the desired fulfillment of our heart.

Whether we are rebuilding our lives or facing our spiritual enemy one more time, we must seek to activate each of the Victory Actions in our lives as we are led, empowered, and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. He will give us to strength and ability to put on the armor of God and to stand firm in truth, righteousness, peace, faith, hope, and the word of God. All we do is to be spiritually astute and “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

It will be in your best interest to set an appointment with the Holy Spirit each day. Hopefully, you have a time set already where you separate yourself from the noise of life and get time alone … quality time … with God. Inviting the Holy Spirit of God to recalibrate your motives and thoughts, and to evaluate your life honestly, will realign your life properly and situate you in a position of victory. As you embrace God’s Word in daily readings, ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you to the meaning of what you read as well as to empower you to apply the Truth of God’s Word to your life daily. As you reframe your conversations and meetings of the previous day, ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding and wisdom. As you consider the

upcoming events of the day and week, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to do that which will bring glory to God.

It ill behooves you to neglect Victory Action #9 Pray in the Spirit. Trying to thrive in a life of victory without praying in the Spirit will be as successful as entering Monaco Grand Prix with a race car that does not have an engine. It just does not make sense! Also, your neglect is exactly what your enemy, the devil, wants you to do. Your unwillingness to address this spiritual discipline gives him a foothold, an open door, into your heart. Since he cannot impede you from praying in the Spirit, his only hope is that your spiritual decline is self-inflicted. He will do his best to tempt you, discourage you, and mock you. But, the only one who can stop you from developing your relationship with the Lord is you.

The response to this victory action is found in the Galatians 5:22-26 passage and specifically Galatians 5:25, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Take time daily to invest in your relationship with the Holy Spirit. Allow Him to lead, empower, and equip you to fulfill all that Christ has commanded so that you can glorify God with your life. This is a key step as you continue your upward and onward march to victory and “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” This is the tested and true action of champions!

 

 

For You to Consider

 

1. What changes must you make to pray regularly, as in each day?

2. Create your prayer list that you can use daily.

3. Ask the Lord to assist you in praying in the Spirit.

4. Consider each item listed in the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-26 and state what you must do to activate them in your life.

 

Scripture for You to Pray Today: Galatians 5:22-26, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

 

What is the Lord saying to you right now?