An Unfortunately Odd Question

Here is a maybe an odd question that, if it is odd, it is unfortunately odd.  

How many people do you have in your life that pray in power?  

How many people do you know that when they pray…you feel their prayer. To pray in power is to move in the Holy Spirit, expressing His force into the life or issue or dark or accomplishment of another.  

The one praying is surrendered to the Person and energy of the Holy Spirit in them. The energy of the Holy Spirit is active and powerful. The one praying in power gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move through them and engage in the life, or lives, of those listening.  

The one(s) receiving the prayer has the opportunity to be moved, to be affected, by the Holy Spirit. If the one praying is in the Spirit and the one receiving is open to the Spirit then the one receiving will feel the prayer!  

So, again, how many people do you have in your life that pray in power? 

Do you pray in power?  

Would you like to?  

Power praying, and for that matter power living, flows freely from intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Let me give you three examples to help clarify how power praying/power living works.  

King Jotham.  

For 2024 we have been considering the life of King Jotham described in 2 Chronicles 27. We have seen that he was called “mighty” because he ordered his BE, BUILD, and FIGHT according to the LORD. He lived power living. Consider that when Jotham went to build or to fight, he did so in the current of what the LORD was doing in his life.  

Can you imagine the power available to one who is moving in the current of the LORD Himself? The Creator of the Universe, who did not exhaust Himself even when He spread out the cosmos, invites men and women to co-labor with Him in the execution of His will. Jotham is transformed from “just a man” or “just a king” into one BUILDING and FIGHTING in the anointing of the Yahweh.  

Jotham offers nothing other than his availability. The power, the authority, and the direction ALL come from Yahweh.  

That is power upon power. 

Jesus.  

Many of us will mistakenly believe that Jesus expressed power because He was the Son of God. Of course He has power. However, Scripture credits His power to another. Luke 4:1 says, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.” Even Jesus says that His power to cast out demons comes from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:28). 

When you see Jesus casting out a demon or performing a miracle or teaching in authority it is because He is expressing forth the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. The force of the Holy Spirit is engaged against the force of a demon and the demon must leave.   

What Jesus truly models for us is a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit. That’s power living and power praying.  

Parents. 

One final example that is more anecdotal than biblical but will hopefully complete your understanding. You know as a parent, or from your childhood, what it’s like to speak in authority to your children. One of your children has been misbehaving. In the beginning, you speak kindly, asking them to stop. If they do not stop your tone will escalate. That change in tone happens as you are “forced” to express higher degrees of the authority you have. Notice you are not “conjuring up” your authority. You are very simply speaking out of the authority you already have. 

The power coming through your voice engages in a battle against the power working in your child. Hopefully, your power prevails! Successful parenting happens, in part, when we let the Holy Spirit train us in varying ways of expressing parental power. If the only arrow you have in your parental arsenal is raising your voice to the point of yelling, then you have lost.  

Power praying taps into the internal power of the Holy Spirit and will come out in your tone in a similar way that your parental authority can. As, hopefully, your child feels the authority you are expressing, so too I want people to feel my praying. But I am not “conjuring up” power. I am relaxing back into the existing current of the Holy Spirit and then praying. This is how Jotham was mighty before the LORD and it is how Jesus did what He did.  

An Experiment.  

1. How intimate are you with the Holy Spirit? If you do not feel close to Him, you may need to repent of various forms of Christianity and training that did not teach you to walk in His rhythm. He wants to be closer with you than you know!  

2. Intimacy happens, in part, by spending quality time. In the time we spend, you will find breathing to be an effective tool. Try silencing yourself, and your phone. Get into a comfortable physical position. Take deep breaths. Allow yourself to relax back into the Holy Spirit. Do not look to something outside of yourself. Remember, our Father has put His Spirit inside you because of the gift of Jesus.   

3. Allow yourself to feel. This can be super hard. But, graciously, our Father is patient and the Holy Spirit is kind.  

4. Be patient with yourself and the exercise. In our noisy, chaotic, fast-paced world, being still and silent can be surprisingly challenging.  

5. Receive whatever the Spirit is doing or saying. You may find journaling to be helpful as so much of what the Spirit gives will be deep and have meaningful impact. 

6. Share what you are receiving with trusted brothers and sisters! 

Power living/praying is not of this world. Be gracious to yourself as our Father is gracious. This way of life is what happens when we move in the OVERFLOW! 

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).