Spirit-filled Day 5: What Spiritual Prayer Should Be, part 2

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 Israel: 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 entire 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 you continue in my word, then are you My disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abides not in the house forever: but the Son abides ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, you 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. Galatians 5:5-6 says, “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” 

Matt. 21:22 says we must pray, but it must be filled with faith. “And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” 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 has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” If faith-filled prayer will heal, surely it will also 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.