Praying in Tongues Makes Pure Hearts…
Mat_5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
As we pray in tongues, our very spirit, cries out to God, in His language. Our deepest thoughts of heart, expressed perfectly to Him, in a language that our minds don’t understand, but that exactly speaks our deepest desires….
Romans 8:26 (EXB)
26 ·Also [or In the same way], the Spirit helps us ·with [or in] our weakness. We do not know ·how to pray as we should [or what we ought to pray for]. But the Spirit himself ·speaks to God for us [intercedes] with ·deep feelings [L groanings] ·that words cannot explain [or that are inexpressible; or that are unspoken; or too deep for words].
As we have been aggressively seeking God here in Tulsa, pressing into Him, praying in the Holy Spirit and seeking His face, I have noticed a wonderful dynamic happening.
In me, Holy Spirit is revealing insecurities and ‘stinking thinking’, and as I confess it to Him, He is changing, transforming me, to become more like Jesus, a better man.
Yet, as I have surveyed the spiritual landscape, I have seen folks ‘blowing up’ in anger, relationships severed or strained, and intense conflicts erupting. So, I asked God what is going on.
Initially, I thought it was all of the devil, a counterattack from the aggressive press we are in in prayer, to turn America and nations back to Jesus, and I am sure that there is some of that occurring, but the Lord showed me something deeper and more profound occurring.
Seems that He Himself, was gently knocking on peoples hearts, Christians that loved Him, but who, like me, had insecurities, secret sins, trauma, and deep core pain issues in their soulical realm.
As we have pressed in, our human spirits have been empowered by the Holy Spirit, and the first word of His name, is Holy!
Psa_23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
He has begun to gently love out some deep hurts and traumas in peoples lives, and as He has come knocking, first gently, now with greater and greater insist-ency and power, and folks have gone off.
The searing pain of His love, too savage to handle, people withdrawing or throwing up defenses of anger, in order to avoid His surgical knife applied to our hearts.
He is not going to stop! Too many of us have prayed too great of a price, to allow old wineskins, and religious constructs, learned behaviors to hinder what must be done.
Luke 20:18
Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
It is time to fall upon the stone and become broken weeping puddles before Him, allowing the depths of His love, and fire to burn away our bitterness, betrayals, pain, pride, self-righteousness, perversions, lusts, rage, and ungodly control, letting Him truly be Lord of our lives, our families, and our church.
Psalm 139:23-24 (KJV)
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
One definition of wicked comes from the root noun,
wick1
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/wicked
The sense then, of ‘wicked’ is ‘to be braided with evil’.
Through original sin, we are all fallen creatures, dead in our sins.
Yet, we have become new in Jesus, born-again, righteous children of the king!
Yet, this is in our spirit – our soul now has become the battlefield, where our mind, will and emotions would struggle to keep us living in our old nature. This part of us, must become renewed, transformed, by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, as He carefully ‘unbraids’ our wicked motives and thought patterns and gives us new life.
This must be the cry of our hearts, to be Holy, and when He answers, we must allow Him to forgive, cleanse, and unravel the twisted cords our wicked ways have made our lives become.
Jacob, the deceiver, supplanter, con man, cried out to God, and after wrestling with an angel, became Israel, prince with God and man, the man of honor he was created to be.
This, is true revival. No more games with God, but deep brokenness, humility, and cleansing of heart, that brings His presence and glory into the earth, through us.
Let’s Pray:
‘Father, I hunger and thirst for what only You can give, not mere positional holiness through Jesus blood, but true purity of heart, motive, restoration of my soul, in the depths and core of my being. Break through every wall I have set up in my heart against You, truth, and cleanse me from my wicked ways, my deepest pains, my sickest secrets, that I might be the vessal of honor you have called me to be, fit for Your use Lord Jesus, Amen’
