Continuing what spirit-filled prayer is from
yesterday, we see that it is the following.
5. A SPIRIT-FILLED PRAYER LIFE IS WITH A FREEING SPIRIT
Ezekiel
was told to tell the house of Israel that someday their nation would return,
that their dried bones would receive hope again; that they would no longer be
cut off.
11 Then
He said unto me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Isra-el: they
say, ‘Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.’
In
Galatians 5 begins with the word “Stand fast in liberty.” God knows that you
are free in Christ and yet he gives you freedom so you can be fruitful. The
en-tire book of Galatians is about the freedom of the Spirit and that we are
not free to sin and we are not freed by the law, but that we are freed from sin
so we can truly fulfill God’s law in freedom. Ezekiel said that Israel thought
all hope was lost. But Jesus said “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my
disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free…Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of
sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth
ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John
8:31-32, 34-36)
6. A SPIRIT-FILLED PRAYER LIFE IS WITH A FAITH-FILLED SPIRIT
12
“Therefore prophesy and say unto them…”
Don’t you know that took faith for Ezekiel to prophesy to a Valley of
dead bones. But now he is to go and prophesy to a dead nation… with faith! We
must have faith and believing we have received. We are not legalistic, but
saved by grace. “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor
uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” Galatians 5:5-6
“And all
things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall re-ceive.” Matt.
21:22 says we must pray, but it must be filled with faith. James 5:15 talks about
how the prayer of faith will raise the sick. “And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him.” If it will heal, surely it will fill us up with
God’s presence.
7. A SPIRIT-FILLED PRAYER LIFE IS A FRUITFUL SPIRIT
12 ‘This is what the Lord GOD says, “Behold, My people, I will open your graves, and cause
you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13
And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my
people, and brought you up out of your graves,
God said
that He would bring fruit to the dead graves and life to Israel. Love, joy,
peace are the fruits of the Christian. Galatians 5 shows us the fruit of the
Spirit, and you cannot be a spirit-filled believer without prayer and without
exhibiting the fruit of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, Meekness, temperance.”
8. A SPIRIT-FILLED PRAYER LIFE IS WITH A FULFILLING
SPIRIT
Ezekiel
37: 14 says that God will “put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I
shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I the LORD have
spoken it, and performed it.” When you know God is in you, you don’t have room
in your heart or prayer life for anything else. It is the most fulfilling way
of life to know that the God of the universe is with you. No wonder Paul asked
rhetorically in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Just a
few verses earlier in verse 26, he said that God’s Spirit helps us to pray even
in our weaknesses. And when we don’t know what we ought to pray for, His Spirit
intercedes and prays for us even when all we can do is groan because words just
cannot express what we need!
If you
are dry as a bag of bones in your prayer life, seek God’s Holy Spirit to fill
you up with overflowing fullness. His Spirit is already in us. We need to move
out of the way and let His Spirit flow in our prayer lives.
Lord,
this study has been rich. We don’t know how to pray as we should but let us
look at these seven portraits and pray as Jesus taught us and as Your Spirit
leads us. Amen.
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