Pray Without Ceasing Explanation
What does it mean to pray without ceasing?
Like many other (even all) principles in Scripture, what is being shown to us is God in action. What is being conveyed is how God how God thinks (he thinks in principles), and therefore, operates.
God Provided Himself
God provided himself in every circumstance, every situation. What do I mean by that?
I’m going to come back to the thought of pray without ceasing, but this is all tied together. When you understand that God provided himself in creation, God the Father (and the Spirit hovered), you see that in Genesis.
You see God the Son. He’s inferred and implied and evident in many ways in the Old Testament, but he becomes clear, more evident, manifested human form in the New Testament.
Then, you have God the Spirit in transformation.
And these Three are One.
To that point, it’s important for us to understand that God does not need us because He has already provided Himself.
Yet, he allows us to take part in, and to benefit from what He’s already done by giving Himself not just to us, but for us. And, that’s a world of a difference.
How Does This Tie Into Praying Without Ceasing?
We are incapable of praying without ceasing apart from God, apart from Jesus Christ, apart from the leading of the Spirit, the infilling of the Spirit, the actual life of God in Christ through us. We are incapable of it.
As humans, it’s the life of God in us whether we acknowledge it or not. There is no human being that does not have the life of God and the measure of faith within them.
The Bible tells us that every human is given a measure of faith. (Romans 12.3)
Every one of us (every human) has the measure of faith.
The Breath of Life
In Genesis, Adam was formed (physical structure) from the dirt/dust of the ground, but Adam did not become a living soul until God breathed the Breath of Life into him.
What made Adam a person…what brought him to life was the breath of God.
Each of us has that breath, the breath of life, in us. As it was with Adam, so it is with us.
How and what we choose to believe and engage with determines what spirit is allowed to operate in and through in us: light or darkness (as spiritual forces).
Regardless, the breath of life is still God’s because God is life, and God is light. (John 1.4)
When We Talk About Praying Without Ceasing, What Is Possible For Humans?
Nothing apart from God.
Why? Because apart from God, in and through Jesus Christ, by the power of Holy Spirit, we are nothing. (John 15.5)
However, what is impossible with man (hu-men), is possible with God. (Matthew 19.26 and Mark 10.27).
The impossible is made possible because it is God working in and through us, not us (humans) doing the work.
Praying without ceasing is possible:
1. When we repent
2. When we are filled with the Spirit of God, Who is the Spirit of life, the same Spirit that is in Jesus Christ… Holy Spirit.
When we look into the Word of God, when we talk about prayer, when we read about or talk about we talk about praying without ceasing, that is the work of Holy Spirit.
We have to repent, we have to forgive, and then we have to agree with God to be filled with his Spirit.
Christ in me and Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1.27)
Our job is the watch over (observe) the Word of God to obey it (again, by the power of Holy Spirit).
God, (also by the power of Holy Spirit) watches over his own word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1.12)
When we give ourselves over to the leading of the Holy Spirit, when we submit our tongues, then Holy Spirit will pray (intercede) for us and for others through us.
Why do we need Holy Spirit to pray through us?
Because the Word of God also tells us that we don’t know how to pray. (Romans 8.26)
Even if we think we know how to pray, and have the best intentions, we are still effectively praying out of the spirit of our flesh: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. (1 John 2.16)
When we pray according the spirit of flesh, we are not praying the will of God in and on earth as it is in Heaven. (Matthew 6.10) Present tense, that means He wants to move now.
Christ Is Selfless
Christ is selfless. That is the entirety of HIs nature. He is consumed with loved for others. Whereas humans are consumed with lust and selfishness in doing what they want for themselves even if it means operating according to a spirit of darkness.
There is no shadow of turning (darkness) in Him. (James 1.17) The level of His love for His Father (now Our Father if we have believed), and for us through the Father, is incomprehensible.
The dynamic, the magnitude is incomprehensible. So when he’s saying pray without ceasing, Christ is not telling us to learn how to pray or to stay up all night praying, although both are possible. He is giving a divine clue, prompt, hint, nudge that this is a Holy Spirit function that He desires to carry out through us.
Recognize that “without ceasing” means without ever stopping.
Who prays when you’re sleeping? The same Person Who desires to pray through you when you’re awake. (Psalm 121.4)
What types of prayer should humans offer?
Prayer and supplication (Acts 1.14 and Ephesians 6.18)
Prayer and supplication with thanksgiving/giving of thanks/gratitude (Philippians 4.6)
The Spiritual Principles of Prayer
God lays it all out in Scripture.
The spiritual principles of prayer, not just the practice of prayer.
Yes, we need to pray without ceasing. Yet, we first have to realize that we are incapable apart from Holy Spirit. That is, if we desire our prayers to be effectual and fervent. (James 5.16)
Perfection vs. Process
This is not about perfection, it’s about process. God’s process for you. God’s process for me.
Every moment of our lives is about God’s process. (Jeremiah 29.11)
The process of transformation, from the darkness of sin into the light of God’s love, by the power of Holy Spirit.
The process of transformation from death to life, to life more abundantly, and ultimately, life eternal. (John 10.10, John 17.3)
Every moment of our lives is about whether or not we repent and submit to that process so that God can bring forth the fulness of His Will.
The Fulness of God’s Will
The fulness of God’s Will is already established, forever settled, and fully implemented in Heaven. Now, God desires, through Christ, by the power of Holy Spirit, to bring forth the fulness of His Will by opening us up as windows of Heaven.
Therefore, Pray without ceasing in the name of Jesus, by His Blood, and by the power of Holy Spirit.
Yes. Amen. And, amen, again.
“Pray without ceasing.” ~1 Thessalonians 5.17
~Michele
#GodFirst
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