But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

Here the scripture is encouraging us to build ourselves up in our faith. There are a number of ways we can do that. What follows is one powerful way to build one’s faith: “and pray in the Holy Spirit.” This can mean praying with the help of the Holy Spirit as we are sensitive to his voice and impressions in our hearts. It can also mean that we should preface our prayers with a request from God that He would fill us with the Holy Spirit. It also certainly can include that ‘praying in the Spirit’ that Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 14. It’s in this chapter that he says that he who speaks in tongues edifies himself, or builds up his spirit.

As we pray in the Spirit, there is a linking up with the Spirit of God to have the mind of Christ and a supernatural empowerment to pray with an anointing and effectiveness that otherwise would not have been there. We can also build ourselves up in our faith through reading the Word of God, meditating on it and journaling what God said to us. We can also build ourselves up in our faith by being in fellowship with other believers, going to church and hearing the teaching of God’s Word.

For many years now, I have experienced God’s power as I am faithful to pray in the Spirit. My prayer language is a powerful tool in prayer that enables me to have the Holy Spirit’s help as I pray. I will pray with my understanding, and then there are times when I will pray in the Spirit because the Spirit of God helps me and I know I am praying according to the will of God when I practice this powerful gift.

I am inspired this day to pray in the Spirit for situations that seem beyond my control and beyond possible solutions. Nothing is impossible with God. And when I pray in the Spirit, I am cooperating with heaven in a supernatural way to set in to motion what God wants to do in any given situation. Often as I pray in the Spirit, then understanding and insight will come because I am opening up my spirit to the Spirit of God.

Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit today and help me to be in tune with what your Spirit is leading me to do, to say, and to pray. Thank You for the gift of tongues that enables me to pray in the Spirit in such a way that my prayers are hitting the mark and accomplishing your eternal purposes in the lives of people.