Everything we do is undergirded by prayer!

https://davidleemartin.com/work-in-me-so-you-can-work-through-me/

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What’s very much in my heart today is just to talk about prayer and talk about the power of prayer. I love this verse of Paul here where he talks about praying in the spirit. He says, what is it then? What’s it going to be like? How do I do this? I’ll pray and I’ll pray in the spirit and I’ll pray with my understanding. I’ll sing with the spirit and I’ll sing with the understanding. I’ll spare you the singing because that would probably not be to kind of spiritual sounding.

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But certainly on the praying side of things, I really passionately I’m very, very much a spirit man in that regard. And I love the just the reality that God and Jesus with the power from on high to pray in tongues. Now, for some of you, that may sound like a bit out there. I’m quite I’ve been out there for a long time, so I’m going to make no excuses for it. It’s there in the scriptures. It’s there in the Bible.

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And it is powerful. It is life changing. It is life affirming and life giving. And that flow from the inner man is so incredible. But I think some people overcomplicate it. You know, where where Paul? He speaks about praying in the spirit and then praying in the understanding and elsewhere. He says, you know, if you’re praying in the spirit, ask for interpretation. So your mind and your understanding can be fruitful, just as your spirit is.

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And the way the way I picture it is like in our kitchen, we’ve got a mixer taps one of those taps where it’s like one spout and then you’ve got the heart and the cold on either side and you can switch them switches and put as much water, as much cold as you want in and the water flows out and mixes as it’s coming out of the net, kind of the source coming through that tap. And I think it’s very much like a like like that in prayer.

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The scriptures say that from our inner man flow rivers. So there’s this kind of picture that God gives us in the scriptures now, this inner flow opening up, coming up from our inner man and flowing out through our mouth in prayer so so that this substance of prayer flows from the inside. And I think that when we’re talking about praying in the spirit and praying in our understanding, it’s all coming from the same source. Ultimately, it is all spiritual prayer.

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It’s all prayer in the spirit in that sense. But we pray in tongues. We pray with our natural language. And I find that it’s very much like like the turning of that tap on. We can switch our tap on and that flow will come up in tongues potentially. And then it’s almost like just without us even trying, if we will relax and yield to the flow of the spirit that, you know, the other tap will be switched on and we’ll begin to find more of the flow in our natural language in the in the language that we understand.

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And I find that this flow is so beautifully dynamic. And oftentimes what will happen is the Holy Spirit will be speaking something in and through in tongues. And then before I know it, that interpretation is coming in my own language. And a while ago, I was praying in this way and the Holy Ghost, these I was praying in other tongues. And then these words came out, Lord, work in me so you can work through me. And this is a conversation that I’ve been having with God now for a number of years.

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And you know this what I’m relating to to you now and this time of prayer really kicked off something so powerful in how I’m approaching my work life, my outer life, my ministry life. Is that there really for God to work out through us, for God to do something in and through us. He has to work in us first. And there’s just this wonderful verse that speaks to this so powerfully in Philippians here. It says, It’s God.

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He works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure. So God is working in us. And the context of this verse is very interesting. It says, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us. And so this working of God within us goes deep to the core of who we are, you know, just a few days ago I heard the Holy Ghost say, David, I want to go to the core.

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He wants to go to the core. He wants to go to the depth of who we are in God. He wants to fill us. He wants to fulfil us. But but it begins here on the inside and it begins with this heart where where it talks about working out our own salvation with humility, working at our own salvation, our own salvation, understanding that ultimately we can’t really work it in our own strength. We can’t really work it in our own wisdom where it has to be God at work within us.

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And as God works within us, just this beautiful reality of the flow of God’s spirit begins to and just begins to be unleashed, begins to be unpacked, begins to begins to really bring freedom to our inner man and freedom of expression in our prayer life. And and so, you know, as we come with this humble, hard as we come, like elsewhere, again, we can see look here. Not that one. Here we go. America speaks about the things that God enjoys, the things that God is looking for in the character of a man, and you know, what we find here in the character of a man is God is looking for humility.

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You know, this verse is pre faced by all sorts of kind of like someone come in and saying, Lord, what do you want? Do you want sacrifices? Do you want these kind of high sounding spiritual things? Do you want and God says, no, I’m not looking for that at all. This is what I’m looking for, to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly and elsewhere we find. That the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite hard God will not despise how beautiful it is to understand that God’s mercy has been extended to us in such a way that we can come boldly into his very presence, even in our imperfection, even in our kind of brokenness, even like we can come.

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In fact, not only that, he welcomes us in that state. He doesn’t he’s not waiting for us to get everything together and get our act together and become kind of some kind of religious superhero. He’s actually saying, look, come to me as you are, come to me with a humble heart. Come to me with your heart bowed before me, understanding who I am, understanding my holiness, understanding my greatness, but understanding also that through Christ, I’ve made a way for you to come and stand without fear in my presence, to stand without condemnation in my presence.

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And I just want to encourage you today to get like switch that in a in a tap on switch that flow on on the inside and let it come forth. Allow God to both speak, speak through you in your in tongues, in your spirit language and also to speak through you in your understanding so he can help you grow and help you move in to the things that he he has planned and desired for your life. Prayer undergirds everything that we do.

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Prayer undergirds all of our production. Prayer undergirds all of our prosperity. Prayer undergirds all of the progress that we will ever make, because prayer really connects us in with the life flow of God’s Holy Spirit. And it’s through the Holy Spirit that we are able to create and bring real value and share and share the wealth and our worth with the world in ways that will kind of outlive us, in ways that will not be kind of just here today and gone tomorrow.

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But to actually build your legacy and so seed that will go forward and go on to bear fruit for many years to come. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.