SUNDAY, APRIL 9
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:14-18

The same apostle that wrote the book of Ephesians wrote 1 Corinthians. Concerning praying in the Spirit the Apostle Paul says, “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. Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say ‘Amen’ at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say? For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;…” He defines praying in tongues, and he says if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays, but because I am praying in a language I have not learned my understanding is unfruitful. So Paul is encouraging us to do what he does. In effect Paul is saying, ‘I pray in the Spirit until I gain understanding or get an interpretation. I sing in the Spirit until I get an interpretation.’ Then Paul says ‘I pray in tongues more than you all’. Now what does that tell us? Paul wrote half of the New Testament. Where did he get the knowledge and insight, the divine breath of God? Where did that wisdom come from? It came through praying in tongues. Everything he did he tells us came from praying in tongues. It is the most practical thing that God has given us and many of us treat it as if it is optional. There should be nothing optional about praying in the Spirit. Only tradition robs us of the power of God because we think it is optional. It was not optional for Jesus to receive the Spirit. It was not optional for the equipping of the early church. They had to stay in Jerusalem until they were ‘clothed’ with the Spirit from on High and it should not be optional for us. The quicker we line up with God the more of the fullness of His power we will see in operation as the end-time church. So isn’t it time we lined up with the Word?