_____________________________________________________________________________________________

ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The Holy Spirit Helps Our Infirmities

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

My experience was right in line with Romans 8:26,

which says the Spirit also helps our infirmities. That

means He helps in conjunction with someone who is

already helping.

This throws us back to verse 23, where Paul says that

we are groaning out of our righteous human spirit. So

when Paul says in verse 26, “Likewise the Spirit also

helps us…,” he is saying, “In the same manner that you

are groaning out of your human spirit, He will also help

you.”

This is how it works. A mountain comprised of fleshly

works stands between you and God’s plan for your life.

The Holy Spirit will focus in on that mountain “with

groaning s that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26). You

have entered a mild form of intercession, but it is for

yourself that you stand in the gap.

These groaning s are not just referring to speech so

profound that you can’t utter it. It’s also talking about

reaching a place in the Spirit where you begin to hate

whatever stands between you and God’s plan so badly

that you enter into a state of groaning or grieving.

Your heart cries out, I wish this was out of my life!

Lord, I hate this!At this point, you have given the Holy

Spirit the faith He needs to come alongside and move

the mountain out of the way.

If you persevere in prayer and refuse to let the

mountain defeat you, at some point you will experience

a “meltdown,” where the Holy Ghost removes the

mountain and you come out on the other side

victorious. Why? Because you cannot continue to report

to prayer and still retain your problem. You will either

have to quit edifying yourself and yield to those works

of the flesh or allow the Holy Spirit to purge them out

of your life.

The Holy Spirit will pull out the problem at the right

time, when you’re ready and can survive the purging.

Your part is to just keep praying.

Don’t stop. Push through the impasse. The Holy Spirit

will illuminate this purging process for you, and when

it’s all over, you’ll be able to see and understand that

massive mountain that was removed from your life.

You will thank God that you are one step closer to

mighty intercession.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Praying in Tongues vs.Deep Intercessional Groaning

____________________________________________________________________________________________

The combination of the two passages we’ve been

looking at in Second Corinthians 5 and Romans 8 settled

for me the age-old issue of the difference between

praying in tongues for personal edification and the

deep intercessional groans of the Spirit — that diversity

of tongues that is operated by God as He wills.

The truth is, even if you start out praying in tongues

with a cold, indifferent, stony heart,only two

ingredients are necessary to bring you to the place

where the Holy Spirit can move through you in deep

intercessional groaning s: your knowledge that your

indifference is wrong,and your decision to pray in the

Holy Ghost by your own will as often as possible.

As you continue to pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit will

edify you and charge you up into the love of God until

compassion gets hold of you — until at times, as you

walk away from yet another person still bound to his

wheelchair, you feel as if you can’t even live unless you

see results. This is the kind of groaning that says, “I

can’t stand this anymore. It hurts too badly.I will put

aside all of my selfishness and strife and all of our

differences. I’ll do whatever I need to do to serve the

purposes of the Holy Spirit.”

Putting our differences aside is a major part of what

delivers us into true intercession.Dead religion consists

of “I have my rights! Vindicate me!” That’s where most

of the church world lives, and that’s why most

Christians seldom visit the realm of miracles.

Therefore, the Gospel of glad tidings doesn’t reach that

little deformed child bound to a wheelchair. He doesn’t

get a chance at his reward because the Church failed

him.

But when we get to that place where we groan out of

our righteous spirits over this world’s pain, sin, and

misery, we don’t want to fight with anyone anymore.

We just want to pray. So why don’t we put all of our

differences aside and start praying!

It is the groaning of our righteous spirits that the Holy

Spirit picks up on. If He examines me and sees that my

new nature is crying for help in groaning s — hurting

but not knowing how to pray as I ought — He says,

“Excuse Me, but I have been sent to help your

infirmities.I want to add My groaning s to your cries for

help, for that will translate to pure power for you to

rise above the inabilities of the flesh.

“You have come to a standstill. In your own strength,

you can’t pull this off. You don’t have the power. You

don’t know how to do it, but I do!”

So the Holy Spirit adds His anointing of power — His

intercession, His groaning s — to blend together in

unison as one with the groaning s of your spirit. At that

point, He empowers you to rise above the problem and

do something about it.

In Galatians 4:19, Paul made a revealing statement that

provides insight into the distinct difference between

tongues for personal edification and deep

intercessional groaning s:

My little children, of whom I TRAVAIL IN BIRTH again

until Christ be formed in you.

How many women pick the day to give birth to their

child? How many choose the day their baby will be born

without man-made intervention? How many stop the

process and say, “I think I’ll wait two days”? Not too

many, I would imagine. Women can start the child

bearing process as they will, but they cannot end it

according to their own will.

In the same manner, at your own will you can start the

process that will lead to intercession and travail by

praying in the Spirit and edifying yourself. But even

after you have reached that place of sensitivity in

which you groan out of your righteous spirit because of

the imperfections of this world, the deep intercessional

groaning s of the Holy Spirit only come upon you as He

wills.

---

UNTIL NEXT TIME

LARRY