Beyond What You Ask or Think/ OMBS7/ Your Final Authority

Beyond What You Can Ask or Think I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all. - 1 Corinthians 14:18 Few things in the Bible have created more fuss than the issue of speaking in tongues. Churches have split over it. People have been persecuted for doing it. People have even been killed for it. Who's behind all the trouble? Satan himself. He's so frightened of our ability to pray in tongues that he's continually trying to steal it from us through persecution and strife. You see, the devil knows (even if we don't) that praying in tongues is the only way you and I can pray beyond what we know. It's the tool God has given us to use to tap into the mind of the Spirit. When we pray in tongues, we activate the Holy Spirit within us and He begins to teach us and enlighten us. If you want to see an example of what praying in tongues can do, look at the Apostle Paul. He said he prayed in tongues more than anyone in the whole Corinthian church and he was responsible for writing most of the New Testament! Another example is the first church at Jerusalem. They didn't yet have any of the New Testament to read. They couldn't turn to Ephesians and find out what God's plan was for them. They just had to pray in tongues until the revelation light of God dawned in their hearts. That's all the equipment they had. So they used it and turned the world upside down. Some years ago God began directing me to spend an hour a day praying in tongues. After I did it awhile, I began to talk to other Christians who'd been directed to do the same thing. God was speaking to believers all over the world to spend time praying in the spirit. If you haven't made a commitment to spend some time each day praying in tongues, make one now. Set aside all the disagreements and confusion the devil has stirred up about it and just say, "Lord, I'm going to do it. I don't care what the devil says. I don't care what any man says. I know You have plans for me that are so good my human mind hasn't even conceived them—things that are beyond what I can ask or think. And by praying in the spirit, I'm going to receive them." Don't let the distractions of the devil disturb you. Tap in to the mind of God. Speak forth His wisdom. Pray in the spirit today.

PRAYER - "Would To God Ye Could Bear With Me In My Folly"

This prayer request seems curious to me, because Paul wanted God to help the Corinthians bear with him in his folly. However, there is no obvious folly in the words that follow. "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Only the beguiled Corinthians would have called his concern "folly."

2 Corinthians 11:3 - "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

PRINCIPAL - "The Natural Body And The Spiritual Body"

There are celestial (heavenly) bodies. There are terrestrial (earthly) bodies. Our resurrected (heavenly) body will be different from our mortal (earthly) body. Flesh and blood will not enter Heaven. When Jesus returns, His saints' bodies will be changed from earthly to heavenly.

1 Corinthians 15:42 - "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

PRINCIPLE - "First The Natural, Then The Spiritual"

God first made the body of Adam, then breathed into him a living soul. "That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual." God raised up a people called Israel, then filled them with the Holy Ghost. God brought you into this world to fill you with His Spirit. Graduate to spiritual living. Abandon earthy living.

1 Corinthians 15:49-50 - "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. ...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."

PROPHECY - "Knowing Gifts, Power Gifts, Speaking Gifts"

It may help to understand the nine gifts of the Spirit by categorizing them in three ways: 1. Knowing Gifts; 2. Power Gifts; 3. Speaking Gifts. Many people teach that the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and discerning of spirits are knowing gifts; secondly, that faith, healing and working of miracles are power gifts; and thirdly, that prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues are speaking gifts. However, the word of wisdom and word of knowledge often involve speaking, too.

I Corinthians 12:11 - "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."

Your Final Authority

I am the Lord, I change not. - Malachi 3:6

The world's order of things is unsure and indefinite. Desperate words of uncertainty are crying out daily from radio, television and newspapers. Everything around us seems to be in turmoil. But, praise God, if you're a believer you have something you can depend on: the unchanging Word of God! God has no double standard. He doesn't say one thing today and something else tomorrow. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. If you will make the Word the final authority in your life, it will give you stability when everything else around you gives way. If you'll let what God says settle the issues of life, you'll be confident when others are confused, peaceful when others are under pressure. You'll be overcoming when others are being overcome! What does it mean to make God's Word the final authority? It means believing what He says instead of believing what people say. It means believing what He says instead of what Satan says. It means believing what He says instead of what the circumstances say. Determine in your heart to do that today. Make up your mind to live by faith, not by sight. Fearlessly commit yourself to the authority of God's Word and there won't be anything in this unstable world that can steal your security from you.

Plan of Salvation read acts 2:38