Speaker A
Do this before praying. Prayer, dear friends, is one of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal of a believer. If only Christians truly understood the immense power that flows from the presence of God when they pray, they would never treat this sacred privilege lightly. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis reminds us that prayer itself is an unbreakable fortress, and any attempt to lift the mind beyond the merely human, even briefly, is something the enemy cannot allow. A distracted prayer is a good start to the ruin of a Christian. However, many Christians fail to take prayer seriously. I want you to listen carefully, for I am about to explain something that occurs in the spiritual realm when you pray. You see, there are two dimensions of prayer, and only one is effective: the earthly and the heavenly. When God created man in the beginning, as recorded in Genesis 1:26, He gave man dominion over all the earth. God delegated His divine authority to humanity, bestowing upon us the supernatural ability to rule and reign over the world. But for man to exercise this God-given dominion over the earth correctly, he must operate from a higher realm, not just the natural realm. To have access to this higher spiritual realm from which you can govern and solve your problems, you must pray and operate from the very presence of God. In John 3:31, it is written, "He who comes from above is above all." This means that when you are in the presence of God, which is much higher than the earthly domain, you will be above all your problems, difficulties, or issues that the earthly realm throws at you. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis warns that whenever people are inclined to pray, the enemy must be active. This is where he can intervene and distract them, diverting their attention to their own concerns and thus away from true prayer. When we get distracted, the first way of praying happens, which is how most people pray: what I call praying in the flesh. Praying in the flesh occurs when a person is actively praying, but their heart and mind keep wandering. They are praying, but at the same time, they are spiritually distracted from the presence of God because their minds keep wandering. As a result, their spirit never truly gains access to the manifest presence of God. This kind of person may go to church for years and pray, but they will continue to return home exactly the same way they left. Lewis speaks of how group prayer is more difficult because it is easier to pretend or go with the flow. True prayer, he says in Mere Christianity, is in effect renouncing our own will and giving ourselves over to God's will. What they don't realize is that their prayers have no effect in the spiritual realm because they are praying in the flesh. That is why you may sometimes be in a prayer meeting and find someone falling asleep while the prayer is happening. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis also notes that people's minds are always drifting away from the object of prayer to focus on themselves and their own efforts to pray. Do you realize that focusing solely on oneself is harmful? That's why Lewis says in Mere Christianity that the essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind. Getting distracted from prayer to think about your own problems is like giving more importance to yourself than to this moment of connection with the divine. This type of person does not truly understand what it means to be in the presence of God. They treat spiritual matters casually, and because they are not connected to the spirit of God at that moment, the flesh takes over. Instead of praying fervently, the mind and flesh begin to dominate the spirit. They tend to fall asleep only when the sermon is happening or when prayers are being said. This person falls asleep during prayers but stays awake if they are on their phone. In most cases, the devil will always make you feel heavier to pray when God is about to do something in your life. This person might wake up in the morning, but instead of equipping themselves as soldiers of God and praying, they prefer to lie in bed. To pray, before they know it, they start to fall asleep. To them, they think they are praying, but to God, they are not praying. The reason they are lying down is to keep themselves in a comfortable state. In Mere Christianity, Lewis says that the presence of God is the hardest reality to remember and the easiest to forget. During prayer, our mind is inclined to wander and be distracted by what is tangible and immediate. They feel too lazy to get up, and that's why such prayers have little or no effect. When it comes to the things of God, you cannot be lukewarm. You must choose to be alert or choose to be inactive. In Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus rebuked the church in Laodicea, saying, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth." In this passage, the Lord was rebuking the church in Laodicea for their spiritual complacency. Their deeds were neither fervently righteous nor weak. When Jesus says, "I wish you were either cold or hot," the term translated as cold is "pseuos," which means icy cold or fresh. Hot is "zestos," meaning heated, boiling, or fervent. Christ was essentially saying that He preferred Christians to be strongly devoted to the things of God or openly opposed to His ways rather than being lukewarm or a mixture of the two. Then there is the second class of prayer, which I call praying in the spirit. This type of prayer is the only one that reaches the presence of God. It happens when a person is fully immersed and surrendered to the presence of God. In Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer, Lewis says that prayer is a response to the presence of God in our lives. When we perceive this presence, even in the smallest things, we are truly praying. Though those who pray in the spirit are not distracted by what others are doing or worried about their situations, they are simply enveloped by the presence of God. A believer who prays this way may be physically praying, but their body, soul, and spirit will be completely focused on God. If you want to be the kind of Christian who gets results from God, you must learn to completely surrender your spirit to the presence of God. The moment you are praying, you must actively position yourself to receive from God. This means you should not be distracted in mind, body, or spirit. The reason is that whenever a person is worshipping, their spirit will be where their mind is. For example, if while you are praying or worshipping, you keep imagining and thinking about the shopping you need to do later that day, your spirit will not be in the presence of God but rather in the shopping center. So although you think you are worshipping God in spirit and in truth, you are actually worshipping what your mind is focused on. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Similarly, Proverbs 23:7 states, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." But when a true believer is worshipping God, he or she may be physically present here on earth, but their real spirit will be in the manifest presence of God in heaven. Although you see them right there beside you, such a true believer will be spiritually present before the throne of God. It is only at this stage that such a believer will begin to encounter the manifestations of God's presence because he or she is not worshipping in the flesh. At this stage, this person will be able to present their cases before God, and they will be heard because this is the type of prayer God truly wants. In the Gospel of John 4:24, Jesus said, "God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." Note that Jesus did not simply say that we should worship Him. He said it must be done in spirit and in truth. This means that if a person is praying or
