We have to start to exercise our spirit by praying, because to pray, in principle, is something in the spirit (Eph. 6:18). If you are going to exercise your eyes, you have to see. If you are going to exercise your feet, you have to walk. The more you walk, the more you exercise your feet. In like manner, the best way for you to exercise your spirit is to learn to pray.
Maybe when you begin to pray, you are still in the mind, in the soul. But if you keep on praying, you will pray yourself into the spirit. Even in our prayer we must deny the mind, the emotion, and the will, and learn to sense the spirit. You shouldn’t pray according to what you know. You shouldn’t pray according to what you like, desire, or love. You shouldn’t pray according to what you decide to pray. You must deny the mind, emotion, and will, and take care of the inner sense deep within you.
Maybe you made a decision to pray for the church, but when you go to the Lord and start the prayer, the sense within is something different. You have to forget about your decision and take care of the inner sense. The inner sense may indicate that you have to say something like this: “O Lord, even with the church, I’m too much in the flesh.” Your decision is to pray for the church, but the Lord gives you the sense that you are so much in the flesh. The more you confess that you are in the flesh, the more you sense the anointing, the peace, the harmony, and the refreshment. On the other hand, if you stood with your decision to pray for the church against the inner sense, you would sense the dryness and emptiness within.
We must put all these principles into our daily practice. Whatever I do or say, I do it and say it by denying my mind, emotion, and will, and by sensing the inner situation. This means that I am using and exercising my spirit. I am living, walking, and doing things not by my self, but by my spirit with the Lord. In our spirit we have the victory. Just turn yourself to the exercise of the spirit. In our spirit we have the enjoyment of the Lord. Practice to use and exercise your spirit.
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