III. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH MY SPIRIT, AND WITH MY MIND.

The apostle makes a clear distinction between praying with our spirit, and praying with our minds: therefore when he said, “I will pray with my spirit,” he also adds, but I will also pray with my mind.” This distinction was made because the Corinthians did not realize that it was their duty, when they spoke in tongues, to edify others and not to simply edify themselves. It appears that many of them had extraordinary gifts, one being the ability to speak in different known languages, but they focused on these mighty gifts, edifying themselves, rather than edifying the church; which caused Paul to write to them, to make them understand, that though extraordinary gifts were excellent, yet it was more important to edify the church.

For, the apostle said, “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind [and the minds of those listening] is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:3, 4, 12, 19, 24, 25. Read the scope of the whole chapter). Therefore, “What shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind” (1 Corinthians 14:15).

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Tags: Bunyan, John Bunyan

II. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH MY SPIRIT

1. I will pray with my spirit.

There is no man nor church in the world that can come to God in prayer, but by the assistance of the Holy Spirit. “For through Christ we have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18). Therefore Paul said, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:26, 27). And because there is in this scripture a complete discovery of the spirit of prayer, and of man’s inability to pray without it; therefore I will in a few words comment on it.

“We.” Consider the person speaking, Paul, an apostle, the extraordinary elder, the wise master-builder, he that was taken up into paradise (2 Cor 12:4). “We do not know what we ought to pray for.” Surely everyone will admit, that Paul and his fellow apostles were able to have done any mighty work for God, yet, he says, “We do not know what we ought to pray for,” without the help and the assistance of the Spirit. Should we pray for communion with God through Christ? Should we pray for faith, for justification by grace, and a truly sanctified heart? We do not know the answer to any of these things. “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11).

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Tags: Bunyan, John Bunyan

I. WHAT TRUE PRAYER IS

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart and soul to God, through Christ, with the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word, for the good of the church, with submission, in faith, to the will of God. In this description are seven things that we need to consider:

1. Prayer is to be sincere.

Prayer is a sincere pouring out of the soul to God. Sincerity runs through all the graces of God in us, and influences all the actions of a Christian, or else our actions are not really from God. It is the same with prayer, as shown when David speaks about prayer, “I cried out to [the Lord] with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened [to my prayer]” (Psalm 66:17, 18).

Part of the exercise of prayer is sincerity, without which God will not look upon it as prayer in its proper sense. God says in his Word, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). The lack of this sincerity made the Lord reject the prayers in Hosea 7:14, where he said, “They do not cry out to me from their hearts,” that is, in sincerity, “but wail upon their beds.” Their prayers were only a fake, a hypocritical show, only to be seen by men, and applauded by them.

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Tags: Bunyan, John Bunyan

Where can you find that God has ever failed to keep a promise, or that He ever lied to the soul that depended on Him? He calls on blind folk to trust Him, even though they walk in darkness and have no light (Isaiah 50:10). Those who flee to Him for refuge, have His promise and oath for their salvation.

Why should we despair, when we have a God of mercy and a redeeming living Christ! We live in a world that is swarming with promises, where mercy is revealed, where grace reigns, and where the greatest of sinners are privileged with the first offer of mercy. To despair in the face of all this would be to not appreciate Christ’s offer of grace. Despair undervalues the Father’s strength and the Son’s redemption.

Despair is unreasonable!

Despair sets humanity up as God’s judge; it tries to take control of the promise; it contradicts Christ’s offer of mercy; and it makes doubt the administrator of our reason and judgment, when it comes to determining what God is capable of doing and what He is willing to do.

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For a long while I used to worry that I was not saved after all.

Certain Scriptures especially troubled me, for they seemed to argue that I could never be secure in my salvation. This fear would come upon me often, like a nightmare of fire comes to those who have been burned. Every sound I heard I thought was someone crying, “Fire, fire!” The slightest touch hurt my tender conscience.

But one day, as I was walking in the field, my conscience once again nervous that something was wrong, this sentence suddenly fell into my mind: “Your righteousness is in heaven.” I seemed to see with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand, and I knew that Christ Himself was my righteousness. Wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God would not be watching for me to lose my righteousness, for all along it would be right there beside Him. My feelings, whether they were good or bad, had nothing to do with my righteousness, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

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Tags: Bunyan, John Bunyan

When I write of justification before God, from the dreadful curse of the law, then I must speak of nothing but grace, Christ, the promise, and faith. But when I speak of our justification before men, then I must join to these, good works. For grace, Christ and faith, are things invisible, and so not to be seen by another, otherwise than through a life that becomes so blessed a gospel as has declared unto us the remission of our sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. He then that would have forgiveness of sins, and so be delivered from the curse of God, must believe in the righteousness and blood of Christ: but he that would show to his neighbors that he hath truly received this mercy of God, must do it by good works; for all things else, to them, is but talk. As for example; a tree is known to be what it is, namely, whether of this or that kind, by its fruit. A tree, it is without fruit; but so long as it so abideth, there is ministered occasion to doubt what manner of tree it is.

A professor is a professor, though he hath no good works; but that, as such, he is truly godly, he is ‘foolish’ that so concludeth (Matt. 7:17, 18; Jam. 2:18). Not that works make a man good; for the fruit maketh not a good tree; it is the principle, that is, Faith, that makes a man good, and his works that show him to be so (Matt. 7:16; Luke 6:44).

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