Before going to the Lord in prayers, it’s always important to know what God’s word says about each prayer request. God’s word has the answer to every prayer need of His people. And wherever the will of God is known, there’s no reason to be travailing longer than necessary in prayer; because His word is the final answer to all our prayers.
This is one major reason why many Christians are failing in prayer. They are struggling to accept God’s word, as being the final authority in their lives. That’s why sometimes many are fasting while praying. What they are really trying to do, is to try and change the mind of God as written in His word.
God’s word guarantees the answers to all of our prayer needs. The Lord alone through His written word has the answer to every prayer, that His children are lifting up before Him. He is always answering all of our prayers, that are being offered based on the authority of what His word says.
But it’s not everyone who’s yielding to the answers, that He has already given them in His word. Many are not seeking out the answers to their prayer needs from His word, before going to God in prayer.
Being able to know the answer to your prayer from the written word of God, will make your prayer life very fruitful. Another hindrance to receiving answers to prayer, is in the inability of the people of God to respond immediately, to the leading of the Holy Spirit as they are praying.
It’s not everyone who has been filled with the Holy Spirit, that do have the spiritual discernment in recognizing the answer to their prayer needs, as it’s being revealed to them by the Holy Spirit.
God needs our partnership with Him in answering our prayers. And He can only do it through us, as long as we are willing to yield to His Spirit Who lives in us. He can’t do anything without your partnership with Him, through the application of your faith on the earth. He needs us to be open minded and available to His Spirit, so that He can work through us.
And that’s why our mouth must be ready to be declaring His goodness, even as we are praying in other tongues.
Become an effective communicator in prayer
A Christian who is praying in other tongues, but who is struggling to yield to the Lord, is not being attentive to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in his life. In other words such a person is not watching while praying (Matthew 26:41).
Another reason for not being ready to yield to the Spirit of the Lord, is the confusion that is often going on within them, in their inability to differentiate the voice of the Holy Spirit from the voice of their flesh and that of the enemy.
A Christian who is spending enough time daily to be praying in other tongues, is being discipled by the Spirit of the Lord to know many things.
Those who are committed to God’s word while praying in other tongues on a regular basis, are able to recognize the voice of the Lord, more easily than those who are just praying once awhile.
When we are praying in other tongues we are doing so, in order to communicate with our Heavenly Father; in such a manner that leaves the enemy clueless, about what we are saying to Him in prayer. The Father knows what we are praying about, even when we don’t have an understanding of it in our mind.
And it’s none of the devil’s business to know what you are talking about with your Heavenly Father, whenever you are praying in other tongues (1 Corinthians 14:2).
You are God’s child and you have a right into the presence of the Father at any time, so as to talk with Him about anything that you want. Don’t ever allow the enemy to distract you away from praying in other tongues. It’s by doing this on a regular basis that you will be endowed with power from the Lord.
The very art of communication itself teaches us that, for any type of communication to be effective, all the parties involved in it must be able to encode and decode one another correctly.
This doesn’t happen without the parties that are involved in the process, being able to constantly communicate with one another with words and signs that are easily recognized by all the parties. Each party involved in communication needs to be sure that they are receiving, the right feedbacks through their communication channels. Otherwise there will be no communication at all.
This applies to what we are doing also with regards to praying in other tongues. We must be able to train our spirit man to decode the mind of the Holy Spirit effectively. Otherwise we will not be communicating effectively with the Father. This is especially important when the Spirit of the Lord is sending us the answers to our prayers.
A lot of Christians are missing the answers to their prayers, because they are not training themselves through His word and by the Spirit, in decoding the answers from the Lord to them in prayer.
Jesus said:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
John 14:26 NKJV
The Holy Spirit is the One who teaches us all things that we are saying in prayer. When you are praying in other tongues, the Holy Spirit is instructing and training you, about how you can understand the mind of God about your prayer concerns.
It’s therefore important to be listening for His instructions and directions as you are praying. But as we are being taught, we must also be quick to yield in declaring what He is teaching us.
By declaring what He is teaching us, we are confirming to Him that we are receiving what we are being taught. And He knows how best to implant whatever we are declaring into our hearts, until it becomes part of our lives.
It’s the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal the mind of the Father to us. He does this so that we can be able to pray in accordance with the will of God.
But if the Holy Spirit is leading you to do something, and you are not yielding to Him; then you will become ineffective in achieving your prayer goals.
Certain defeats of Christians in spiritual warfare comes, due to their inability to be able to properly decode the mind of the Spirit in prayer. The Holy Spirit is instructing and teaching them, but they are not yielding to His teachings.
Of course we are all prone to making mistakes in prayer. There’s not a perfect Christian on the earth. The only Man who was perfect on the earth is Jesus. That’s why even though we are striving to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, we will still be struggling in the flesh because of our frailties (Matthew 5:48).
The Lord Himself understands the frailties in us as human beings. He knows the weaknesses that we are struggling with every day. But that is not an excuse for not developing our born again spirit man by praying daily in other tongues.
In fact the Bible teaches that:
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:13 NKJV
Every deeds of the body (flesh) that are making you frail can be dealt with by the Spirit who lives in you. This is done as you yield to the Spirit, while you are praying in the spirit.
And it has to become a lifestyle pattern, because as long as you are still living in your physical body, you will always have to deal with the frailties of the flesh.
If your flesh has to be dead, you will be out of this earth. But the deeds of the flesh and their fruit has to die in your life, so that they won’t have to continue to be a hindrance to you in yielding to the Holy Spirit.
Whatever you are constantly practicing is what you will eventually become perfect in. If you are practicing to live as a Christian, the Lord will help you with good success.
A Spirit filled Christian needs to be praying more often in other tongues, so as to become a skillful communicator with His God. A person who is really serious about talking with God, will have to become skillful in practicing His presence daily.
The Bible says:
“Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
Romans 8:27 NKJV
And again it says:
“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart.”
Proverbs 20:27 NKJV
The Holy Spirit searches through our hearts, in other to bring us into unity with God’s purposes in prayer. Our ability to declare the mind of the Spirit brings results for us in prayer.
That’s why Paul said again:
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? 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.”
I Corinthians 14:14-15 NKJV
While praying in other tongues our understanding is unfruitful, because we may not have a clue in our mind about what we are praying about. But the spirit man in us understands what we are praying about.
Therefore if you are yielding to the Holy Spirit, He will put words into your mouth to be declaring, in accordance with His perfect will about what you are praying. In this way you will be able to pray effectively in your own understanding, because His words on your lips will give you the understanding of everything.
So keep on travailing in the spirit and by the Spirit. Yield to the Spirit in declaring the will of the Father, because it’s His word that will eventually prevail in bringing you into victory.
And remember that you have not really finished praying, until you are listening to hear from Him. Don’t just be praying in other tongues; be a good listener to become an effective communicator with God.
