This week’s blog is a guest post from my friend Charles Carrin. There are people who carry a special anointing that will stir your spirit to greater heights than you can imagine. Charles is such a person. He is a Giant in the Kingdom of our God. I am always very blessed to spend time with him. His energy and his depth of spirit are off the chart. His insight and his experience are uniquely displayed through his humble power. While his body is approaching ninety years in time, and gives him challenge at times, his spirit is forever young and he is a very young man in power and in demonstration.
The article below is from his newsletter, Gentle Conquest. I encourage you to read it in detail and let the Spirit of God that is in Charles encourage you. His discourse on creationism is top shelf. We all have questions at times, and this is a good reference to keep close.
If you would like to contribute to Charles’ ministry, the information is included at the end of the article.
If two tuning-forks are in the same room, one is struck to produce a musical note, the other, without being struck, will begin duplicating the same sound as the first. The second intercepts the vibration of the other and responds sympathetically to it. This happens because the tuning forks share a musical compatibility. There is a parallel to this in the spirit-realm. After we are born-again, we are made “like Christ,” and in a way similar to the tuning-fork, are able to respond to Him. Prayer is not a recitation, formality, or religious ritual! It is a response to the call of God. The hymn writer said, “O the pure delight of a single hour / That before thy Throne I spend / When I kneel in prayer and with thee my God / I commune as friend with friend! / Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord…” This drawing is vital to authentic prayer.
When Jesus approached the grave of Lazarus, anticipating his resurrection, “He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said to his sisters, Where have you laid him?” John 11:33,34. Paul, in anticipating his future resurrection, said, “For in this (body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven … in this tent we groan,
being burdened …” II Corinthians 5:2-5.
Soon after my baptism in the Spirit in 1977, I began experiencing radical changes in my prayer life. One, which I did not understand, and for which I had received no teaching, came in a surprising way. I was in a congregation worshipping when I suddenly felt a drawing in my mid-section that bent me into a birthing-position. As I dropped into a chair; a deep, deep groan came from somewhere inside me.
It was not something I did;
It was something done to me.
The experience was physically intense and lasted for several minutes. During that time I felt completely separated from my surroundings and joined to God in a unique and different way. But the connection was not to God only; I felt joined to His purpose in the Universe. I had never experienced anything like it before. Later, in reading Scripture and meditation, I realized the Holy Spirit had allowed me to participate in the Great Prayer rising from Creation. That prayer involves every galaxy, asteroid, planet, down to the smallest particle of meteorite dust. Paul explains:
“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God … because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”
Romans 8:19,21,22
Jesus revealed that the elements, including inanimate matter, have sensitivity to their Creator and possess the capacity of worship; this was disclosed when he spoke of the stones “crying out.” Luke 19:40. That includes everything from the smallest pebble in the brook to the greatest galaxy in outer space. No asteroid, nebula, planet, or meteorite dust is omitted. God confirmed this to Job when he spoke of the time “When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7. Some physicists believe that at the absolute bottom of the atom is “sound.” While we usually identify this experience as “intercession,” because of the groaning that accompanies it, we fail to connect it to the Scripture’s more vital message. Paul then identifies our role in that universal prayer:
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Romans 8:26 (cf. II Corinthians 5:1-5.)
This groaning-prayer (which is not to be mistaken with the gift of tongues) originates with Jesus’ High Priestly intercession in Heaven. Scripture explains:
“Christ … who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Romans 8:34
Let me warn you: Do not try to “fake” this prayer. That approaches mockery. Instead, offer yourself to Christ as an intercessor; let Him have total control. It may be that you will experience the Cosmos’ Universal Prayer when “All nature sings and ’round you rings, the music of the spheres.” Someday, as a
result of that Universal Intercession, the farthest galaxy in space “will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19-21. Hallelujah!
The prayer Jesus now speaks from the Throne is permeating the Universe with the assurance of success. In response to this prayer, Creation is echoing back its holy longing for redemption to deliver it also from the “bondage of corruption;” it knows that cannot happen until the “manifestation of the sons of God” is complete. Romans 8:19-23. Some individuals who are drawn into this intimacy with the Spirit find themselves so far removed from all human language and so deep into the things of God that it leaves them as wearied as if they had been on a long journey. Paul explains:
“What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”
1 Corinthians 14:15.
Scripture identifies prayer in three basic forms:
1. Praying according to human understanding; that is, praying about information our 5 senses tell us. Paul calls this praying “with the understanding.” I Corinthians 14:15. This prayer is dependent upon knowledge gained by the mind (correctly or incorrectly) and while it is all some people have, such information is not always reliable. James 4:3.
2. Praying “in the spirit”. I Corinthians 14:15. Jude 20. This prayer originates from the specific direction of the all-knowing Holy Spirit. In this prayer, through the gift of tongues, we speak “mysteries” far beyond human comprehension or human language. I Corinthians 14:2,14.
3. Praying as “the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with ‘groanings which cannot be uttered.’” Romans 8:26.
In examining these three types of prayer, we must realize that the mind, by itself, has only five natural sources of information. It receives knowledge from what the body tells it through seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling.
These are all marvelous senses with which God has equipped mind and body to function together. We thank God for them– though none of these senses are spiritual. Consequently, the mind, by itself, is a vastly insufficient tool for the spiritual work of prayer. Christians whose prayer-life is limited to mental-knowledge are depending on human abilities inferior to those of the neighbor’s dog. That is a rash statement, I know, but before you disregard me, please hear what I have to say.
Animals have senses vastly superior to man’s. A Polar Bear can smell food at a distance of 24 miles. The common housefly can detect and respond to danger in one-two hundredths of a second. The peregrine falcon can see a pigeon 5 miles away and dive at speeds of 217 miles an hour. Also, he has “fast” vision. His eyes could actually read print on a whirling airplane blade. An owl can hear the movement of a mouse from two football fields away. Bats fly unaided through a pitch-black cave, sharks can smell a single drop of blood in millions of gallons of water. Your own dog or cat has hearing perception better than you. At a burned-out arson site, a dog can smell 1/500,000 of a drum of flammable fuel; his sense of smell is 100 times greater than a human’s. The common shrimp can see more colors than we do. The Monarch butterfly can discern tastes 12,000 times more subtle than a human’s, and with perfect precision, fly 2,000 miles unaided to a tiny spot in Mexico. What about endurance? Eggs of the tadpole shrimp can survive dormant for centuries at temperatures more than 150 degrees below zero.
Unlike the limited mental capacities of our human body, the regenerate human spirit is neither confined nor limited. It has potentials greater than all the combined animal abilities I mentioned. Our spirit has access to the gifts of “wisdom and revelation” which equip it to receive and use knowledge directly from the Holy Spirit. This special equipping is the precise function of the “word of knowledge,” “word of wisdom,” “discerning of spirits,” and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 12:8-10.
As an example of what I mean, a “word of knowledge” came to me one time during a prayer meeting, instructing us to pray for a Jewish lady named Mildred. Though we knew absolutely nothing about this stranger, we stopped everything else and prayed for her. At the end of the service a visitor came forward, took the microphone, and in a very shaken voice said, “I have never spoken before a congregation in my entire life, but tonight I must. I came this evening to ask you to pray for a friend of mine in the North — but I arrived too late to make the request — However, I did not have to — The Lord told you for me — Her name is Mildred and she is Jewish. She is the one you have prayed for.” Several wonderful things resulted from that “word of knowledge.” The Jewish lady was not only healed, but when she learned what had happened at our meeting, a thousand miles from her, she went to a Baptist church in her community, believed the gospel and accepted Jesus as her Messiah. Such are the wonderful ways of God.
Another time during prayer I received a word that someone in the
congregation was suffering from severe pain in their wrist. Another had pain in the stomach. A moment later, two women, strangers, stood before me, one carefully holding up her hurting wrist and exclaiming, “But how did you know?!” “I didn’t,” I explained, “The Holy Spirit told me.” The wrist and stomach pain were both healed and the two women became long-time
members of the congregation.
A dramatic healing occurred when a word of knowledge revealed that a “spirit of rebellion” was working against several in the congregation. Four people came forward acknowledging the problem and wanting deliverance. The Holy Spirit visibly touched three of them. The fourth, to whom nothing discernibly occurred, was a woman named Ellen, who suffered from constant spinal pain and wore a chin-to-hip back brace. The next night she was awakened from her sleep by the glory of the Holy Spirit surging like electricity through her body. She was not only filled with the power of God and delivered from the rebellious spirit, but was instantly healed. The brace was discarded.
The choice before modern Christians is whether we will conduct our prayer-lives by “soul” knowledge, i.e, the five senses, or believe that the gift of revelation knowledge is available to us today. Satan himself is a spirit and is light-years beyond our meager human senses. If he can keep our spiritual life confined to things we have to see, touch, smell, taste, and hear, he will continue to dominate us. Hell rocks with laughter every time ministers stand before congregations and preach against the miraculous Gifts. These men drill holes in the bottom of their own boats with that kind of preaching — and Satan gladly gives them the tools.
Why do we need to “pray in the Spirit?” Paul explains:
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” The Apostle further explains, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.” (My mind is by-passed.) “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.”
I Corinthians 14:14,15
Paul is declaring that he will use both mind and spirit as essential means of prayer. If the greatest writer of the New Testament needed both tools of prayer can you and I get by with less? Do not be afraid of the gift of tongues. Crucify your ego! Surrender your pride and allow the Holy Spirit to speak through you! Allow yourself to be the tuning fork that responds to the call of God. You will be glad you did!
If you would like to help underwrite the newsletter and support the ministry of Charles Carrin, you may send checks to P.O. Box 800, Boynton Beach, FL 33425 or donate on Charles’ website at Charlescarrin.com.
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