Teach Me to Pray Like Paul

In December 1967 Delores and I moved to a little central Texas town named Clifton and became pastors of the church there.  I worked 45 hours a week at a manufacturing plant there and pastored the small church.  I, also, was dealing with a condition called Hypoglycemia or low blood sugar although I was completely ignorant of my condition.  I suffered with the symptom, but didn’t know Hypoglycemia existed. One day after working eight hours in the manufacturing company I felt absolutely exhausted.  I walked next door to the little church building, went to the sanctuary and knelt down.  I began crying feeling so absolutely hopeless.  Then I did something that changed the course of my life.  I looked up at the ceiling of that sanctuary and asked the Lord, “Teach me to pray like Paul.”  I didn’t know what I meant, but God knew what I needed.

Over the next several months I began to see Scripture I had never noticed before.  In 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 Paul’s writing introduced me to gifts of the Holy Spirit including a gift called tongues or languages inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Additionally, I noticed that tongues was available to every believer for their private communion with the Lord.  So one day after leaving the machine shop, I knelt at the altar in our little church building and began worshiping Jesus.  Then I chose to speak in a language I had never learned and the Holy Spirit honored my faith and enabled me to worship God from my human spirit as well as from my mind.  It was marvelous!  He was teaching me to pray like Paul.  Paul declared, “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:14).  He distinguished between praying from the human spirit and praying with the human mind.

Then Paul asked a question: “So, what shall I do?”  He answered his own question by saying, “I will pray with my spirit, but I will, also, pray with my mind.  I will sing with my spirit, but I will, also, sing with my mind” (1 Corinthians 14:15).  So I began choosing to commune with the Lord by praying in a language given by his Spirit.  Then I would pray in English, the language of my mind.  It was marvelous and uplifting!

We are human spirits housed in human bodies so let’s use both the spirit and the body in communing with the Lord!