"in the Spirit"

[mfblume]

1 Corinthians 14:14-15 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. (15) What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

The context above shows praying in tongues to be something in which our understanding is unfruitful. IOW, praying WITH understanding is not praying in tongues. We cannot even understand what we are praying, ourselves, when we pray in tongues.

Notice he said HIS SPIRIT is praying when he prayed in tongues. That is what must be carried over into the next verse when we read about [praying in the spirit. He said that was contrasted from his understanding. So, if he prayed in tongues and his spirit prayed and his understanding was unfruitful, then the next verse speaking about praying in the SPIRIT is praying in tongues! And praying with the understanding is contrasted from praying in tongues, and refers to praying with understanding which means praying in our native language. We can understand our own native language. We see that by contrasting praying with understanding from praying in spirit. So, praying in the spirit cannot refer to praying in our native language. Context disallows that in these two verses.

[Esaias]

Jeremiah 31
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

[Esaias]

Ezekiel 36
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

[Esaias]

Romans 8
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

[Esaias]

http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/against-law/

[shazeep]

and you personally have seen fruit from this? Ty.

[KeptByTheWord]

Originally Posted by shazeep

and you personally have seen fruit from this? Ty.

I have seen lots of "praying in the spirit in tongues" from people who got up from their place of prayer not demonstrating any fruit of the spirit, but fruit of the flesh. Sickening really, and that is what gives "tongue-talkers" such a bad name, in my opinion. Too many have figured out how to speak a few words "in tongues", but their heart has never undergone a spiritual transformation.

However, I do know that there is a deep spiritual level of the heart that can be transformed by spending time in prayer, and in speaking in tongues. But... the outward fruit of such prayer is more the evidence that one has been in the spirit than the prayer itself, in my opinion.

[Esaias]

Ephesians 5
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Here the apostle commands us to be filled with the spirit, and gives several key identifying marks of being spirit-filled: speaking to one another in song; expressing thanks to God through Jesus; and submitting to one another in godly reverence. While these are not the only signs of being spirit-filled, they were important enough to be listed. Praying in tongues obviously was NOT important enough to be listed there.

[Esaias]

Anyone who has ever experienced travailing intercessory prayer knows that praying in the spirit is not limited to praying in tongues. Perhaps not enough people have experienced genuine travailing intercessory prayer, so the only praying in the spirit they know is tongues?

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Anyone who has ever experienced travailing intercessory prayer knows that praying in the spirit is not limited to praying in tongues. Perhaps not enough people have experienced genuine travailing intercessory prayer, so the only praying in the spirit they know is tongues?

Excellent post.