Strengthen Your Spirit
Apr 21, 2023 | by Jennifer Wade
There are many misconceptions that believers have. One of the biggest and most impactful is the thought that believers are immune to weakness. As a matter of fact, as long as you live on this earth, you will have a weakness. What is it? It’s the body you live in. It’s a body that can be influenced by the world around you.
Your reborn spirit doesn’t want to sin. It wants to be in complete obedience to God. But, your old nature does tempt you to sin. That doesn’t mean you are set up for failure until Jesus returns. It simply means you need to strengthen your spirit until it rules your body. You may be wondering how to strengthen your spirit. It is quite simple. Let me give you an example that many people can relate to.
If you want to strengthen your arms, what do you do? Do you read more books and lay on your couch and watch more TV? Absolutely not! If you want to build the strength in your arms, you lift weights in a gym or at home. Just like that example, if you want to strengthen your spirit, you need to pray in the spirit. Praying in the spirit causes your spirit to rise up and take charge.
Your spirit is more powerful than any of your old habits, and when you strengthen it, those old habits will have no choice but to step aside. Many Christians don’t understand this. They will come face to face with some sort of sin and instead of praying in the spirit and conquering that thing, they continue to fail over and over again. It becomes a vicious cycle for so many.
Romans 8:26 in the Amplified says, “So too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer…but the Spirit Himself…pleads on our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.” God knows your weakness and He has given you a way to overcome it. He has gifted us the ability to pray in tongues and speak The Word!
The enemy would love nothing more than to keep you down and tell you that praying in the spirit will not help your situation. Take Heart! Trust the command God gives in Jude 20 and “build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”
I have personally experienced the importance of strengthening my spirit by praying in tongues. The enemy knows our weakest points. He knows how to get to us and be impactful. But, every single time he has come at me, even when it looked bad and in my flesh I had no idea how things were going to turn around, I continued to strengthen my spirit by praying in the Holy Ghost.
I will leave you with this one example, because I believe the Lord wants me to share this for all the young moms out there. When Anniston was just a tiny little baby…just a couple of months old, I remember rocking her to sleep one evening. She was crying and fussy, which was very unusual. (Side Note: We were blessed with the best babies…and I don’t say that lightly. They were extremely easy babies who were both sleeping through the night by 7 weeks old. HALLELUJAH!) I rocked her and sang to her but nothing worked. She cried for a good 30 minutes, as did I. I wanted to help my sweet baby girl, but didn’t know what was wrong with her. It hit me all at once…I didn’t need to know what was wrong with her. I just needed to pray in the spirit and He would reveal to me exactly what needed to be done. So, I continued to rock her and began to pray in tongues. I laid my hands on her little chest and within a matter of seconds the crying stopped and she was at total peace. I didn’t need to say anything specific. I only needed to be obedient and pray in the Holy Ghost.
That moment changed my life. Anytime the enemy comes at me or there is a moment where I just don’t have answers, I will begin to pray in the Spirit and answers come and peace floods my heart. He is so faithful to His Word and His promises. It is up to each of us to do our part. I encourage you to strengthen your spirit by praying in the spirit. In those moments, Holy Spirit reveals things that only He can reveal.
I love you all dearly!
Pastor Jennifer