Praying the Word: How Christ Becomes Your Prayer

But I would say brethren, there is a better way to pray. Forget everything you know about prayer, and let’s look. Okay, I really discussed this today, but I’m going to go over it because I really know that you can’t really believe this. I am going to read this: this is in 1 Corinthians 2 – for what man knows what the things of a man save the spirit of a man. My spirit is the only thing that knows me. The spirit that is in me, my human spirit, knows me. Okay, now praise God. There is one thing in this universe that knows me and what I need, right? That is my spirit. Okay, I got one in just right, which is in him. Even so, the things of God are not known by any man.

Now that there’s someone else in this universe, and it is God. Now, I know myself. Do I know God? Do I know what’s on his mind? No, I don’t, not yet; I’m going to tell in a minute. There is only one who knows God and what’s in Him and about Him, and what His mind is, and who is that? The Spirit of God. And who is the Spirit of God? The Lord Jesus is the Spirit of God. And the Lord Jesus is the Word, brother, and the Lord Jesus is the Life. And he is the Spirit. Praise the Lord.

Alright, now then, we’ve not received the spirit of the world. We have received the spirit, which is of God. Now we have a spirit from God that we might know of the things that are freely given to us of God. Does that mean he’s going to give me a Cadillac next week? No, brother, I don’t even have to know it by word. There is something within me that can know the riches of Christ, even if I can’t understand them and call them by name. Have you had that sense last month and this weekend? Praise God, I knew that all the time; I just couldn’t quite say it. Did you have that sense? I knew this was my heritage. I knew I had the right to them. I didn’t quite know how to say it. Alright, you knew, but without the word to express it. Okay, which things also we speak? Not in the words of man’s wisdom and teachings, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things to spiritual. There is a passage of scripture in 1 John that says, ” You need no man to teach you, right? Alright, the Holy Spirit teaches us.

Now then, the next verse says, “The soulish man, of course, cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually understood. Now, it is important that we get the last part. Who has known the mind of the Lord? This is Father. Who has known the mind of the Father? There is only one: the Lord Jesus Christ, who can instruct Him. Who has ever instructed the Father? You say no one? Brothers and sisters, we’ll tell you in just a minute. Is there someone who has ever instructed God? Yes. Brother, we have a great High Priest, standing at the right hand of God, who has sympathy for us, for He has been like us…no, he has not sinned…interceding for us to the Father. What did you say? Is He seated? Oh, sometimes, brother, sometimes He sits, sometimes He stands; it depends on what His position is. Yes, brother? Why can’t He know? Why does He have to have Jesus tell Him how we are suffering; how we are? Brother, it is because even the Father is a spirit and He knows by the Spirit. I ask you how you know the things you know. How do you know? By your mind, your brain? Alright, God has a way. He knows by the Spirit, but brother, even more than that, there is one who knows even better than the Father, for He has sympathy. It is one thing for the Father to know; it is another thing for a man to intercede and explain to Him and to intercede for the weakness of man, even though the Father knows, the Son deals with the Father in the matter of mercy. But, brother, no, it’s really not. But we have to say that the Father has chosen to know man, especially the children of God, in the Spirit. This business of saying God is omnipresent and omniscient, and He knows all things; that’s good, but that’s a worldly term. We have to take the scriptural term.

The Father knows, but brother, it’s more important even that we know Him. Let’s look at it from this viewpoint. I cannot fully answer your question. I do not know why someone who knows all things needs to be instructed. I only tell you, brother, that God has allowed One who has come to this earth, live in it, and knows us and sympathizes with us, to stand as our Lawyer and a High Priest and intercede for us. That’s all I can tell you; I can’t explain it. Does anybody want to argue that point?

The question is: Is Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit? I’m surprised no one has asked this question before. Is Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit? The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last man, Adam, was made a life-giving spirit. Now, he is either the Holy Spirit, or there are two spirits. One of the two. Okay, in 2 Corinthians, there is a passage of scripture that says, “but we all with one face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are transformed…that’s not changed. Transform is the same word in Romans 12:1…into the same image from glory unto glory even as by the Spirit.” Has any translator got the gumption to translate this the way it should be? What sister? The Lord. We are changed from glory to glory by the Lord, the Spirit: the Spirit, the Lord. The last man, Adam, became a life-giving spirit. He who is joined with the Lord is one spirit. We are transformed from glory to glory by the Lord, the Spirit. I know that the riches of the triune God are too much for all men to comprehend, but there was a man upon this earth, and He came on to this earth and lived; He fell into the earth and died. He rose again, and he came into a room without opening the door, and He breathed on them, and He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he disappeared, but he didn’t leave; He was still in there.

And that’s not all. The Lord Jesus also said in John 14 that He is with you…He is speaking of the Holy Spirit…He shall come…He is with you and shall be in you. Who was with them? The Holy Spirit? The Lord Jesus. He said He is with you, and He shall be in you. You cannot say the Holy Spirit is separate from the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus has been translated into the Spirit, and He is the Holy Spirit. He ascended. Where is the physical body of Christ? Brother, I’ll tell you where the physical body of Christ is. It’s at the right hand of the Father. You say, then, if He is at the right hand of the Father, He cannot be in you, but the Word of God says, the Lord Jesus Christ is in you. He said to Timothy, “The Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit. And the Word of God also says, the Father is in your Spirit, and of course, the Holy Spirit is in your Spirit.

Do you have three Gods in you? Do you? There is only one God. The Father is in you. The Son is in you. The Holy Spirit is in you. You know who’s in you? The triune God is in you. You say the Son is at the…in physical body, as a man…beside the throne of God? That is right. And is he in you? That is right. You say that’s impossible. That is wrong. Brother, there is some electricity in that bulb right now that is at this exact instant in a generator. It’s the same electricity. The self-same atomic electricity. It’s lighting up that bulb; it’s down in that generator. It’s in the same place at the same time; that’s as close as man can get to understanding the Lord. I can only say to you, brother, that He is in you and He is also with the Father. Thank you, brother, for asking the question. That’s precisely where I wanted to go.

What did we say a little earlier today? That Jacob, when God began his building, Jacob lay down and put his head on a rock, and that night, he saw a ladder and the angels ascending and descending on that ladder. Then the Lord Jesus said, “From this day, when He came, you shall see the angels of God ascending and descending where? On Me. There are angels that come down Jesus Christ, just like a ladder. They come down, and that ladder also reaches to heaven. There is a ladder that is firmly placed upon this earth, and it goes all the way into the highest heavenlies, and it touches the Father. That ladder is embedded in me right here, and at the same time, that ladder is embedded in the Father. And there is an ascension and a descension between the two: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Now then, brethren, I want to ask you a question. What is prayer? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. That’s good enough. That’s good enough. Hallelujah. Using the ladder. Brother, I’m going to go just a little bit further. This passage of scripture, a moment ago in Romans, that for a moment I was confused, is in Romans 8:15, where we groan; we cry, Abba Father, right? And then in Galatians 4, it says the Spirit groans Abba Father, right? There is something within us that groans. Sometimes it’s us, and sometimes it’s the Spirit. Something inside groans.

Now, then, brothers and sisters, what is prayer? What is real prayer? I’m not talking about this religious stuff, but what is real prayer? Do you know, brethren, what real prayer is? Groaning in the Spirit? That’s a little bit of it. I have Jesus Christ in me, and I have Him in the Father. He searches me, and He sees my need, right? We learned that a minute ago. He’s in my spirit. My Spirit knows me, and my Spirit is mingled with His Spirit. Remember that? Who knows the mind of God? The Lord Jesus knows the mind of God and can instruct it. And where is the Lord Jesus? He’s at the right hand of the Father. If somebody in here is really smart, they can tell me what prayer is. Yep. That’s right, brother. That’s just beautiful.

It is my Spirit groaning to His Spirit. Or His Spirit groaning in me and just taking inventory of me, not only seeing my needs, but seeing who I am and what I am, and seeing my very essence in being, and then turning to the Father up here and groaning there, explaining to the Father. You see, and then that same Spirit turns to the Father and understands the Father and knows the Father, what’s in the Father, in the essence of the Father, and comes and delivers that to me. Praise the Lord, isn’t that great?