Hi friends! Yesterday, we talked a little about the infectious prayer life of John the Baptist. In the same volume, we saw that Jesus lived an exemplary prayer life that caught the attention of the disciples rather than first sermonizing the disciples with long teachings about prayer. The actions of this duo revealed to the disciples their emptiness, giving them a burden for prayer. That is what the life of a praying person does. It speaks! It speaks volumes more than the words of many sermons put together.We can then conclude that when the disciples were demanding to be taught, they wanted to be imparted with a life and with the skills.
I have taken time to check the original words used in this context. The exact word used by the disciple here is the word yahrah which means to rain or flow as water. It is also translated as throw or lay as if aiming at something. This tells that the disciples were asking for a rain that is aimed at them. It is like asking for a baptismal experience. May the Lord baptize you and I with rain of prayer (Amen).
Other synonyms to the word yahrah are the words chdasko and rhipzo . The former means to impart the skills and knowledge of something. I am more in love with other word rhipzo which means to fan or bellow. This word can best make more meaning to you if you have been to a blacksmith's shop. The bellow is that instrument that they use to blow hot air into a given object so that the impurities can be removed and the object can be bent into the shape that the blacksmith has in mind. This is actually the end point of a praying life; you are purified and bent into the master's desired shape. However, my emphasis here is the heat that is blown on the metal. We probably are spiritually cold today because the Lord has not blown the heat on us. But if the heat must come, we must ask. Every appreciable change a man experiences from the Lord are those desired and demanded. Will you ask the Lord for a baptismal and a firing experience of prayer today? I tell you, if you ask, the Lord will not hesitate to give. He gave them the life and the teaching about prayer.
Now, Jesus is not physically present here but He does the same work of baptism through the Holy Spirit. John prophesied that He shall baptize us with Holy-Ghost and with fire (Matt. 3:11). He personally said, He will send the Comforter who shall take from Him and impart to us.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8 : 26-27)
Our infirmities are many. Apart from lacking the fire of prayer, the bible establishes in the scripture above that we don't know what to pray for and even how to pray. Alas, there is good news !Now we have the Holy-Ghost, the one who carries the fire and know what to pray and and how to pray. Can you ask Him to help you today?
I am not just talking about praying in tongues alone, I mean an unusual experience that cannot be explained. Have you groaned before? If you have not, then you are not getting me yet. In fact the few instances that Jesus prayed in the Spirit publicly were not in tongues like we do today but He groaned. This kind of groaning is like labouring in pain. At the house of Mary and Martha on the instance of Lazarus' death, he groaned in the Spirit because of the shared pain of Lazarus' death (John 11:33). This was the kind of experience at the garden of Gethsemane when He prayed and the sweat form His body was like blood. Can you groan without uttering a word and yet there is spontaneous result? Naturally, you cannot do that but by the power of the Holy-Spirit, you would.
Groaning is a result of a burden. It comes when you are desperate for a change like Hannah. She prayed, only her lips moved, her words were not heard. She sweated to the point of being soaked and mistaken to be drunk. At Pentecost, when the tongues of fire came, they were like drunken men. Ask The Lord for a baptism today, you will be surprised at the termendous impact on your prayer life and the amazing answers you will receive.
I'm waiting to hear your testimonies. Keep the fire burning!
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