Transcription
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Greetings in Jesus' name. I'm Bishop Chester Wright, and this is the video teaching series, "Praying in the Spirit." This is Part 1 of that series, which is focused on learning how to pray in the spirit. This is Lesson Number 16, and we want to talk about how that praying in the spirit edifies us today.
The last words of the Apostle Peter in 2nd Peter chapter 3, verse 18, he said, "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." That's just one example of the teaching of these things of the Apostles in the epistles, especially that we should be growing.
Salvation is not like a switch, on or off. It's not like that at all, because salvation is a relationship, a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, in any true relationship, that relationship is really never the same from one day to the next. That relationship can either be growing farther apart, or it can be getting closer together. But no relationship is truly stagnant. It can't be stagnant. We may say it's stagnant, we may call it stagnant, but it's not stagnant, because a stagnant relationship is one that has not grown and so, therefore, is moving apart.
So, it's like my lungs. I can hold my breath for a few seconds, not as long as I used to be able to, because I really don't want to hold my breath. I want to breathe regularly. But there has to be a regular in and out of my breath for my lungs to work and for my body to get the oxygen it needs.
And a relationship has that kind of give-and-take dynamic to it, that over the course of time, you're able to look back and go, "You know, this is not the same relationship we used to have. It is a much better relationship, or so much worse relationship." And the most important relationship in your life is the relationship you have between you and Jesus, and that relationship should be growing. And there are ways we can grow, and there are several things that contribute to that growth.
The two most important things that contribute to that growth is our immersing ourselves in the Word of God with Jesus present. I've said this many times, and I'll say it again here right now: it is my intent and my desire to never read the Bible by myself. I always want to read the Bible in the presence of Jesus. I always want to read the Bible when I have spent time or invested time in getting in tune with His voice, His Spirit, and His voice for that day, so that I can count on Him directing me in my study and also guiding me in that study in the sense that He explains things to me as He leads me through that study. I want to be able to have that.
But the other dynamic that is so critical in our personal growth is our prayer, because again, prayer is supernatural communication between God and us, and us and God. So, for prayer to be truly prayer, it needs to be two-way communication.
For me personally, it has been my long experience that two-way communication works probably as effectively, if not more effectively, when I'm actually praying in the spirit. Because as I'm praying in the spirit, those prayers are not coming from my mind. Now, my mind could even be turned off, or the worst thing I could do is my mind be wandering around to something that's not connected to the Lord or whatever. I'm thinking about something else while my spirit's praying; that's not a positive thing.
But the other thing I've learned to do, a couple of things I've learned to do with my mind while I'm praying in tongues, is sometimes I will pray in English in my mind while the Holy Ghost is flowing through me in tongues. But then at other times, and probably the most important thing that I have learned to do in praying in the spirit, is I learned to listen with my mind for the Lord to speak to me.
Now, sometimes He gives me an impression, and I feel it here. And sometimes it's a still, small voice He speaks. And sometimes it's a little bit more recognizable or assertive than just that still, small voice, where I have to, through experience, I've learned to discern the difference between that still, small voice and my thoughts. But there are other occasions where the voice is more definitive. It's not an automobile... I don't know that I've ever heard of an automobile... I have on occasion heard His voice speak to me strongly enough internally that it almost seemed like it was external.
But in any relationship where there's two-way communication, sometimes you may whisper in that communication, and sometimes you may shout in that communication, hopefully not too often with that. But most of the time, communication is somewhere in between whispering and shouting, hopefully if you've got a positive relationship. And it's rare that that communication not have some emotion in it, regardless of which direction that communication is going.
So, the whole purpose here is to grow, to grow in grace, because all of us is empowered by His grace. And if I don't grow in grace, then I don't trust His grace to do these things through me, instead of me trying to do it for God and try to somehow gain or win His approval because of what I do for Him. I don't want to do that. I want to come to the end of myself, as I've taught in previous lessons, and I want Him to pray through me.
But while He's praying through me, my mind is not done. I don't go unconscious; I don't go into a trance. My mind is still there. So, why not allow my mind—and I don't mean my brain, but my mind—but my mind is the function of conscious thought. That's my... and my heart is the function of subconscious thought. So, both my mind and my heart, meaning my inner man... I have some that there... there at some place in my brain, except for the connection to my spirit. But part of my brain, which I would call my heart or inner man, that relates to my inside and to God through the Spirit that He has put within me, is one thing. And then there's another dimension where the conscious part of my brain that I call my mind, it relates to this world. And both of those are functioning all the time.
Now, they're not always functioning in harmony with one another. And when they're not functioning in harmony, I don't have peace. And for me to have peace, my spirit has to be dominant. The spirit working in my heart has to be dominant over my mind, my conscious mind. I have to be submitted to the will of God by submitting my will to the will of God. And so, this is really critical.
But where does that strength come from? Where does that ability to do that come from? How do I fellowship with the grace of God so that that can be accomplished? How do I do that? How do I do that? Well, we're going to talk about that.
Jude chapter 1—as there's only one chapter in Jude—Jude chapter 1, beginning with verse 20: "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
So, there is a building of my love, me spiritually, that takes place while I am yielded to the Spirit of God as He's praying through me in tongues.
Now, the Amplified Version says it this way: "But you, beloved, build yourselves up, founded on your most holy faith, make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher, praying in the Holy Ghost in order to keep yourselves in the love of God. Expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, which will bring you eternal life." So, our life eternal.
So again, hear this: this building up that takes place, this founding upon and building up of my faith, happens while I'm yielded to the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God is flowing through me, called praying in the Holy Ghost. And that is done through tongues the great, great majority of the time.
The Wuest Expanded Translation says it this way: "But as for you, dearly divinely beloved ones, building yourselves up constantly in the sphere of and by means of your most holy faith, and as constantly praying in the spirit of and by means of the Holy Spirit, with watchful care keep yourselves within the sphere of God's love, expectantly looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, resulting in life eternal."
Now, let me just say this is what's so important here. There are a lot of translations out there, and most translations are just simply trying to translate the original languages where they are readable. So, they don't just translate for literal accuracy, but they also translate for readability. And that's why the King James Version is considered one of the most beautiful pieces of literature that's ever been translated, because it's very poetic, it's very much a piece of literature. For those with no faith, it's still a piece of literature, but we know it to be the Word of God.
Now, as a student of the Word, someone who wants to understand the Word, and someone who believes that the Word of God is only divinely inspired in its original languages—and since I have not studied Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic and have not been allowed to do that, I'll leave that right there, and that's not speaking about anybody else—I appreciate everybody that has some knowledge of the Greek language from a linguistic standpoint. But there are so many different Greek study tools available, and also not as many, but still Hebrew study tools available, especially because of the Strong's numbering system that so many of these works across the board are using in common, which helps a person like me to be able to study these different Greek scholars of what they say about these words because of that common reference system.
But there are translations that... one particularly that I like to use is called the "Interlinear Greek," and then the Greek letters, and then the Greek transliteration of the Greek words into the English letters, and then the translation of what those words actually mean. And then under that, you have the corresponding King James. And because of that, it's really easy to see. And because of all the Greek dictionaries and lexicons and other critical works of the Greek that are available now for people like me to read what scholars actually say, and then a bunch of... in the multitude of counselors there is safety. So, I never take one person's word for any of it. I read all these, and then the Holy Ghost kind of puts those together, and I get the sense out of it, what He's trying to say.
And I'm saying all that, the reason I use the Amplified Version, primarily the classic edition, but there are times I do like the 2015 version of the Amplified Bible, but also the Wuest Expanded Translation of the New Testament. These two translations, especially among others (Rotherham Emphasized Bible is another), are really trying to get the Greek straight out of the Greek into the English, regardless of its readability, so that a person like you, like me, and maybe you, depending on your situation, can get the benefit of what the Greek is actually saying that is not necessarily able to be translated in a way that has great readability.
Now, I usually minister from the King James, and almost all of the scriptures I have memorized are King James. So, I said all that to come back to you here, for you can understand that when I read the Amplified and Wuest, in this particular case, they are bringing out elements of the Greek word and the tense and the grammar and all of those that give you a flavor that you wouldn't normally translate them as from one language to the other because of readability.
So, just for instance again, I'm going to read the last part of verse 20 from the Amplified: "that you, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, making progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher, praying in the Holy Spirit." But Wuest says, "building yourselves up constantly." So, it's not just something you do occasionally, "in the sphere of and by means of your most holy faith." And how is my faith building me up? "And as constantly praying in the sphere of and by means of the Holy Spirit."
Well, how can I do that? Well, I go then to a verse I've read to you before, 1st Corinthians 14:4: "For he that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself." And what is he doing? We are praying in the spirit. We're praying in the spirit.
So, going back to Jude verse 20, we are building up our most holy faith. The strong sense of the word "build up" there is to build upon, figuratively to rear up. Thayer's Greek Lexicon says, "to build upon, to build up, to finish the structure of which the foundation has already been laid, to give constant increase in Christian knowledge and in a life conformed thereto."
So, what is our foundation in the Lord Jesus Christ? Our foundation is, according to Hebrews chapter 6, verses 1 through 3, the foundation is the principles of the doctrine of Christ. But it's only of the foundation, and I don't mean "only" the foundation as if it becomes unimportant. If you know anything about building, you know the foundation never ceases to be possibly the most important part of a structure, because in Jesus' parable about the house built on the rock or the building one built on the sand, the fact there's survivability in negative circumstances, in crisis, is dependent upon what foundation they're built on. So, thank God for the principles, the doctrine of Christ. But what are we doing with them?
And that's why in the verses that tell us what the principles of the doctrine of Christ are, they're introduced this way in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1: "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." That Greek word means completion, maturity, and fruitfulness. And then Paul gives us what those seven principles of the doctrine of Christ are. So, when he said "leaving the principles," he doesn't mean abandoning them. You leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ like a builder would leave the foundation. You get the foundation in, you get the floor set, and you leave it in the sense that you progress from that with the building you build upon that.
Well, what is one of the main ways that we leave the principles of doctrine of Christ? We take all that foundation of doctrine that He put in here for us to know what truth is and have that sure foundation, and we go from that by praying in the spirit constantly. Now, "constantly" and "continuously" are not the same words. "Continually" means I don't ever stop. "Constantly" means that it's something that I do, we could call it habitually, in the sense that I do it regularly throughout the day. And if you and I want to build up our most holy faith, we have got to learn to pray in the spirit. We've got to have a liberty in tongues and praying to the Spirit. And we've got to understand the importance of it enough to desire to want to pray in the spirit to the point that by the grace of God, giving us the resolve to do what we desire to do, we're then empowered to do that. And that is, we are frequently praying in the spirit throughout the day.
Now, this same Greek word is used in Colossians chapter 2, beginning with verse 6, when he says, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted"—that's the foundation—"and built up"—there's that word—"in him." If I'm rooted or founded and built up in Him, so I'm founded on the doctrine of the Word of God, but I'm built up in Him by the Spirit. And how am I built up in Him in the Spirit? As I yield my being to God for Him to pray through me. "Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with Thanksgiving."
So, if I'm abounding, I'm not just stopping with the structure being built. Abounding would indicate that the building is finished and furnished, all the walls decorated, all the trim painted, all the floor covering put down, whatever that may be, all the equipment installed. And that is, of course, of what was the Word of God and the will of God.
In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 11 and 12, God has given to the church some perforations... now, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, verse 12: "For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." That's a really good verse to read both in the Amplified Version and the Wuest Expanded Translation; they really give you the flavor of the Greek. And this is what the Greek says: that we should be fully equipped, that the saints of God would be fully equipped to do the work of their ministry so that the church can grow thereby.
So, in order for the church to grow, the people of the church have to grow. They've got to grow. In order for the church to grow, the people have to grow. And it's not enough to just grow in the Word. Growing in the Word is the foundation. When John says, I believe it's 1st John, "to try the spirits to see whether they are of God," well, the Word is the logos. What's happening through me in the spirit, whether I'm speaking it in the language of my mind or I'm praying it in tongues, I am speaking Rhema. And if God speaks Rhema to me, and not just through me, then to know that's God, I've got to be able to test the Rhema by the logos, because Rhema will never contradict logos. So, I've got to have this foundation, or I'll end up deceived.
So, if I'm submitted to the foundation and everything is built on that foundation of the Word of God, then as I pray in the spirit, my faith, motivating me to trust the Lord, to trust His Spirit, because I believe His Word, then causes me to let the Spirit of God flow through me in tongues. And as that happens, my faith is built up. I am built up.
Most of the revelations, probably 80% or more of the things God has given me over the years, is given to me in my mind while I was praying in the spirit. And they would come to my mind, and whenever there was a space or a time in the spirit that I could do it without hindering the spirit, I'd get out whatever I'm writing on. And thank God, now I've got tablets, nice Apple iPad tablets that I can write on right away and just get enough down so I don't have to stop right then and go back to pray.
Now, sometimes what He is saying is so critical, He just keeps talking and I keep writing. And other times, He'll speak a verse to me or a thought to me, and then I write it down. And then He wants me, directs me to a verse to go study, and then I'll go study that verse for a while. And sometimes I'm doing that while I'm still speaking in tongues, because again, what's coming out of my mouth in tongues is coming out of my spirit, but He's talking to my mind and teaching my mind what I'm doing.
There are some folks, oh, they would be oh so upset with that. I got booked for it. Get booked for it, because it's the same Spirit, and He's able to pray through me while He is speaking to me. And the most amazing thing is this: when I take what He's talking to me about and I go to the book and then I prove it like the Bereans did in the book, it's God. It's exactly what His Word says.
So, He's not only building me up in faith in the sense that I'm trusting Him more and more by yielding myself to Him, because according to James (which I'll talk about in another video here, or in a lesson a little bit), according to James, while I'm speaking in tongues, my whole being is learning how to yield to God: heart, soul, mind, spirit, and will. I'm learning how to yield to God. So, that's building up my faith.
But for me personally, while I'm praying in the spirit, He's talking to me and giving me revelation understanding about the things in the Bible I did not know. And when I study those as He directs me and studies some with me, it explains them to me. Guess what? He's building up my faith because I'm getting understanding and a revelation of implementation and application of those things He's taught me that I didn't have before. So, that too is building up my faith.
Now, 1st Corinthians 14:4 says, "He that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself, but he that prophesies edifies the church."
Now, the Amplified says here: "He who speaks in a strange tongue edifies and improves himself, but he who prophesies, interpreting the divine will or purpose and teaching with inspiration, edifies, improves the church and promotes growth in Christian wisdom, piety, holiness, and happiness."
But then Wuest says it this way: "The one who utters words in a tongue builds himself up in his Christian life, but he who imparts divine revelations to others builds up the local assembly."
They're both important. How can I... I can't give to other people what I haven't first received. The principle in the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 10 and 8 that Jesus said, "Freely you have received, freely give." And there are too many preachers preaching stuff from their mind because that's the only experience they have with it. It's what they learned about it intellectually. But God wants you and I to have experiential knowledge so that when we're speaking about that experiential knowledge, we're speaking it with a level of conviction that the guy with intellectual knowledge has no hope of speaking with.
I mean, I don't remember what all I studied at the Naval Academy. They were engineering courses: thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, electrical engineering. I studied all that stuff, had semesters and all that stuff. I don't remember hardly any of it today because somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that wasn't going to be what I did with the rest of my life. And during that period of time, I was really seeking for God and studying His Word. So, I did study enough and paid attention in class to graduate, not excel, but to graduate. And I'm confessing to you there, I tried to excel in the Word of God and in knowing God, and apparently He was in that one.
So, the point is, I studied all that stuff, but I didn't ever use that stuff. And so, technically, I could take the notes from one of those classes, if I could find them, and they're someplace at home, and I could talk to you about it, but I wouldn't have any experience in it at all. I've had a class in it, but I couldn't do it.
I have a basic understanding, working knowledge of computers, and could do some basic work on them myself, changing out some parts. I've done all this over the years. I can do some of that, and I can install software, and I can do updates. But if there's a problem with my computer, I can't fix that because I don't have experience with that. Now, I can go on YouTube and watch videos, and I might be able to fumble through and maybe fix it, right? But I wouldn't be doing it from a place of experience; I would be doing it from a place of intellectual knowledge.
And let me tell you something right now: however long it would take me to do that, to learn it intellectually and then figure out how to do something I've never done before, would take much, much, much longer than it would take the guy who is the expert, who has all that... he doesn't just have the knowledge, he's got all this experience that he's faced this situation, that one, that one, that one, or whatever. And he's worked through all of that. And so, he looks at my computer, he does some clicking, typing, and configuring, whatever. Next thing, it's fixed. You go, "It's fixed already?" "Yeah, it's fixed."
Well, it's the same thing in ministering in the kingdom of God. Is it important to learn things intellectually? Yes, because I have to receive it intellectually most of the time before I could ever hope to gain any experience with it. But too many people stop with the intellectual pursuit, and these things never become a part of them, never become a part of the experience.
Now, I'll say it again: when my faith is built up by experience in the Holy Ghost, with the Word of God and the Holy Ghost, I can speak with a level of certainty, not as a know-it-all, but as a person who's experienced things. I've got some experiences in that, and I can relate those experiences, and I can tell you what I learned from those experiences, and all of that will help you.
But if you don't take that... if you watch every one of these lessons in this series, every one of them, that won't mean that you can pray in the spirit. Because if you don't take these things yourself and pray, you're not going to learn them.
Again, 1st Corinthians 14:4, excuse me, "Whoever... if you pray in the spirit, you are edifying yourself." And that word in the Greek means, according to Strong's, "to be a house builder, to construct or figuratively confirm." And Thayer says it means "to build a house, erect the building, metaphorically to found, to establish, to promote growth in Christian wisdom, affection, grace, virtue, holiness, blessedness, etc." And also, Thayer says it means "to grow in wisdom and in piety."
So, my question to you is this: Do you want to grow? Is it okay with you to be stagnant, to stay stagnant, when God's invited you? You know, how does it read again, King James: "He that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself." Now, I read that and I go, "Oh, that's nice." Do you really? You read that and go, "Wait, here's a way that I can grow and get stronger spiritually. This will contribute to my spiritual growth and strength." What is my response to that going to be? "Beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost." I'm going to read that and go, "Oh, that's nice." Really? I don't think so. Not the hungry, not those that really want to know Jesus, not those that really want to grow in Him. You're going to go, "Okay, God, I don't know how to do this, but if You will teach me and work with me on this, I want You to do this in my life."
Now, in closing out this lesson, there are those, especially those who do not speak in tongues at all, or those that have only spoken in tongues once or twice and they rarely have ever spoken in tongues again, who want to pervert that verse and say that it means that whoever speaks in tongues is puffing themselves up. But I'm going to say to you, at no time in scripture is this Greek word used of being puffed up or of puffing oneself up.
Let me just read you two other places where this word in the Greek is used. Acts 9:31: "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." And then 1st Peter 2:5 says, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." So, here are two places where this word is used. This is a very positive thing. This is what the Holy Ghost wants to do in our lives.
But just to finish the point, let's read 1st Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1: "Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." And then Romans 5:5 says, "Hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." So, when it says charity edifies, I received the love of God literally when I received the Spirit of God, when I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God shed the love of God abroad in my heart.
And how does charity edify? "He that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself." He's not doing the edifying, but he's yielding to the edifying that's being done by the Spirit, because the Spirit can't edify me if I don't cooperate, if I don't participate, if I don't yield to Him for Him to do this through me.
But this is the important thing in this particular verse: if "edify" means "puff up," then Paul is saying this: "As touching things offered to idols, we know that all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity puffeth up." Really? I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so.
So, here we are in the verse that has both the word about speaking in tongues edifying you, and this verse has the word "puff up" in it. That makes it definitively clear that there is no intent by Paul or the Holy Ghost speaking through Paul to say that people that speak in tongues are puffed up. Because if that's what Paul was saying in 1st Corinthians 14:4, then he personally confessed to being puffed up in 1st Corinthians 14:18 when he said, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all." So, if speaking in tongues puffs you up, then Paul was confessing he was more puffed up than anybody at Corinth. Now, we know that can't be the case.
So, if that's not the case, and this edifying or building up of our faith is a positive, a very positive thing in the spirit, then why wouldn't you and I want to do that? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray today, right now, as we conclude this lesson, in Jesus' name, that the Spirit of God would come upon you and upon me, and that the Spirit of God would quicken us and move within us by what's called His grace to motivate us to want to flow in the spirit and pray in the spirit, and motivate us to walk, to grow in God so that He can do that in us, to us, and through us. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
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