ians blogposts
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By Ian Ashby I used to work as a graphic designer in the West End of London. Every day I would get a train and commute into the City. The train was often packed with standing room only. I remember one particularly bad day when a previous train had been canceled and my fellow commuters and I crowded into the train carriage, all jammed together with no room to move. It was hot, it was stuffy, and as the train rumbled along the track I started to feel increasingly sick. I felt faint, there was no way out, I couldn’t move and what’s more I felt like I was about to vomit over the other passengers! Oh my God!
But instead of panicking, I began to pray under my breath. I couldn’t concentrate on any words, I just prayed with my spirit. I prayed in tongues. I prayed for the whole journey. It was amazing! Not only did the feelings of sickness subside but as we arrived at our destination and we all spilled out onto the platform I felt like I was floating. I was so full of the Spirit it was all I could do to restrain myself from shouting, ‘Glory!’
Have you ever had an experience like that? Is that why the apostle Paul was so thankful that he could pray and sing with his spirit, which he also calls ‘speaking in tongues’? ( 1 Corinthians 14:15-18) Is that why he said to the Corinthian church ‘I want you all to speak in tongues’? (1 Corinthians 14:5) Not so they wouldn't vomit, but rather, as Paul wrote in verse 4 of the same chapter, ‘The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.’ Surely that's one of the main purposes for this gift, it is to build us up, to strengthen us. In this particular passage of scripture, the apostle is encouraging the Corinthians that whenever they gather for worship, they should seek to excel in the other spiritual gifts that are given to edify the whole church. However, at the same time, he seems to be indicating that the gift of tongues is the only gift that is given to the believer for their own personal edification.
That’s why Paul says, ‘I’ll pray with my Spirit and I’ll sing with my spirit,’ he seemed to be enjoying God’s presence in his personal life. It must have been very different to when he used to religiously go to the temple in Jerusalem to pray. Now his body was a temple of the Holy Spirit and he could worship in the Spirit wherever he happened to be. And every time he engaged in this spirit inspired worship he was building himself up.
I wonder if that’s what Jude had in mind when he says, v26 ‘But you beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God...’
I really believe that this gift is intended to play an important part in the Spirit-filled life. I know in my own personal devotions, I probably sing with my spirit and praise God in tongues more than anything else. It's like my own spirit has been given a voice and I can sing and praise, expressing my thanksgiving and adoration to God without having to find the words all the time to express myself. What a wonderful gift! What's more, as I exercise this gift I find that God fills me with his spirit and it often then stimulates other gifts, such as prophecy, as well as being a great help in enabling me to pray for others. I shall be looking at this intercessory use of the gift in my next blog.
But I hope you are encouraged to ask God for this gift for yourself, and if this is already your experience, that you will want to worship God ‘with your spirit’ all the more!
If you have any questions about speaking in tongues and the practicalities of doing so, then please do get in touch, I would love to help you in this. |
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By Ian Ashby ‘Speaking in tongues’ What is your response to that? What image comes to mind? Wacko Christians that you should avoid like the plague? Maybe you’re a Christian, but this is a biblical topic you’ve never heard talked about, it’s like the elephant in the room that everyone ignores. Yet, the Apostle Paul, one of the greatest New Testament writers and influences on Christian history, clearly valued this gift as part of his prayer life. We get an insight in 1 Corinthians 14:14-19: “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also...I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you...”
It should be pointed out that Paul goes on to say that in a church meeting he would rather speak five intelligible words for the benefit of the listeners than 10,000 words in a tongue. That is the context of this passage of scripture - public meetings, where Paul is appealing for people to participate with gifts that would edify the whole body not just themselves. But it’s like he is also saying to us ‘don’t hear what I’m not saying, I thank God that I speak in tongues.’ It’s not that he doesn’t value the gift, it’s just that he is distinguishing between the public use and the private use of this gift.
So what was Paul’s understanding of praying in a tongue, that he equates with praying with his spirit? It seems that the ‘gift of tongues’ (1 Corinthians 12:10) is a prayer language that the Holy Spirit gives us to enable our own spirit to pray. Paul says, I will pray ‘with my spirit’ not the Holy Spirit, it’s his own spirit praying. It’s a language that the Holy Spirit gives to us, but it’s to give a voice to our spirit. Paul says it’s praying with his spirit, as opposed to praying with his mind. He’s not having to think about what he’s praying, in fact he can’t understand what he is praying, ‘my mind is unfruitful’ says Paul.
You might think, ‘what’s the point of that!’ Yet clearly, Paul valued this gift. He thanked God for the gift, and he seemed to use it a lot. The Corinthians were known for being a bit excessive in their use of this gift, yet Paul could say: ‘I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you’. What’s more, in v5 of the same chapter, he says, ‘I want you all to speak in tongues.’
Presumably, then, Paul felt that this gift had value for all Christians. Surely, Paul wouldn’t say that unless it were possible for all Christians to speak in tongues and pray with our spirit’s. Some would argue that in Chapter 12 he says rhetorically, ‘do all speak in tongues, do all interpret?’, with the answer being ‘no’, but we have to keep remembering that the context for these scriptures is public worship where he is appealing for a diversity of gifts. But for private use, I believe God would give it to everyone who asks. Why? Why was it so valuable to Paul? Why would he want us all to speak in tongues? We’ll examine two reasons next time. |
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By Ian Ashby God knows I need help! Don't you? No where is this more evident than in my prayer life. Sometimes I just lack the desire to pray, it's hard to get motivated. Or when I do pray I find it hard to concentrate, my mind wanders. Sometimes prayer can feel dutiful or God can seem distant, nothing seems to be happening. As John Piper once said, 'every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before'! I agree! My spiritual life can fluctuate with my feelings and circumstances, so I might say with David, ‘why so downcast within me O my soul?’ I need reviving. I need help!
Not only that, but so often I don't know how to pray. The needs around me can be so great, where do I start? So many things I could be praying for quite apart from my own needs: family, church family, neighbors, people who are sick, marriages in difficulty, our ministry to our City, the constant need for resources, finances, workers, more leaders, more churches; then there's the nation, the Government and what about overseas! We have a family serving God in one of the most dangerous places in the world, how do I pray for them, how do I know what God’s will is in all these things? I feel weak in prayer, don’t you?
But do you know what? So did the great apostle Paul. We've already seen how Paul says whenever we pray it should always be 'in the Spirit'. He gives us a good reason why in Romans 8:26-27, '...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us...according to the will of God'. This scripture is a great encouragement to me. Firstly, because Paul includes himself. He talks about 'our weakness' and 'we don't know how to pray.' Even the great apostle struggled in prayer. That helps me! But secondly, because he says we have been given a helper - the Holy Spirit. What's more, it’s when we acknowledge our need/weakness that the Spirit can then help us. Paul says, 'he helps us in our weakness.' Another great encouragement from these verses is knowing that if I pray 'in the Spirit' I can know my prayers are going to be heard and answered. How can I know that? Listen to what John says in 1 John 5:14-15,'This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him'. But how do we know if what we are asking for is 'according to his will'? Because in Romans 8, Paul says, 'the Spirit himself intercedes for us...according to the will of God'.
It's why J Stuart Holden could say: “Praying in the Holy Ghost is but co-operating with the will of God, and such prayer is always victorious.” That's what I want, don't you? I want to learn more about what it means to 'pray in the spirit'. Personally, I take these verses as a great encouragement to ask for the Holy Spirit's help, to learn to depend on him, to listen to him, and to consciously rely on him rather than my own strength and ability. But what does all this mean in practice? Next time I will look at what the apostle Paul meant when he said, 'I will pray with my spirit and I will pray with my mind.' |
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By Ian Ashby
In the book of Acts, we can read the story of the growth of the early church. It is a phenomenal account, full of supernatural activity: miracles, healing, dreams and visions, angelic visitation and anointed preaching resulting in thousands of people turning to Christ, new churches being started, cities turned upside down and the gospel advancing into nation after nation. It seems that the first Christians were literally carried along by the power of the Holy Spirit. How I long to see that happening again, especially in New England. How I long to see the church relying on the power of the Spirit rather than the latest church growth seminar and clever marketing!
But what is the key to this Spirit empowered advancement? Surely the answer is prayer. Isn’t that what we see throughout the book of Acts - a praying church? Both biblically and historically, it is prayer that has advanced God’s cause.
But how are we to pray? How did the early church pray? According to the apostle Paul, we should be “praying at all times in the Spirit with all kinds of prayers and requests”. (Ephesians 6:18)
Some people have thought that ‘praying in the Spirit’ is referring to praying ‘in tongues’, but that can’t be the case since Paul is saying there are different kinds of prayers, yet all should be done ‘in the Spirit’. Indeed all our praying, ‘at all times’ should be done ‘in the Spirit’. So what does this mean? How can we make sure we are ‘praying...in the Spirit’? What did Paul have in mind when he said that?
Listen to Gordon Fee in his magnificent theological work ‘God’s Empowering Presence - the Holy Spirit in the letters of Paul’
"Unlike most contemporary believers, Paul considered prayer... an activity inspired by God himself, through his Holy Spirit. It is God siding with his people and, by his own empowering presence, the Spirit of God himself bringing forth prayer that is in keeping with God's will and his ways."
What do we know of that in our own lives, personally and corporately? That’s what I want to examine in this series of blogs. Next time I will talk about depending on the Spirit.
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Written by Ian Ashby
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So, last Sunday I shared with the church my feelings of helplessness when faced with the need to see spiritual breakthrough. At Harbor Church, we believe that it was God who opened the door for us to meet at historic North Church. We believe he wants us in the center of the City to be a blessing to the City. But honestly, since moving there it feels like we have lost something of the informality, the joy and the participation that we had before. We are also faced with several serious illnesses in our midst. We have been praying persistently and seen a measure of breakthrough, but then things seem to have slipped back. We have also seen very few people come to a saving faith in Jesus in the last year, the only man who did committed suicide. When faced with such things it leaves you feeling helpless. Maybe you are in that place in your own life, feeling powerless to do anything about the circumstances that you face. But we are not without hope. In fact being in a place of weakness and helplessness is a good place to be in. It is when we come to realize that we can do nothing apart from the grace of God and as we come to depend on him that God delights to step in and show his power. J O Fraser came to see this in his own life and ministry. Fraser was a missionary in South West China where he lived in the mountains among the Lisu tribe. He labored among them for years, pouring out his life without seeing any lasting fruit. He felt helpless. He said, “I cannot insist too strongly on my own helplessness among these people apart from the grace of God....I feel like a man who has his boat grounded in shallow water. Pull or push as he may, he will not be able to make his boat move more than a few inches..." That's it! That's exactly how I feel right now, maybe you can identify with him too? But Fraser learned an important principle through that time. He said he felt like a grounded boat, unable to make progress in his own strength, but he went on to say, "let the tide come in and lift his boat off the bottom-then he will be able to move it as far as he pleases, quite easily and without friction.” That's exactly what Fraser saw happen, as one day, all of a sudden the spiritual tide turned and scores of families converted to Christ. It was a remarkable move of God and within two years 60,000 believers had been baptized. You can read his story in Mountain Rain by Eileen Fraser Crossman. Fraser could only stand amazed at what God had done. He concluded that we still have to play our part - preaching, teaching, exhorting etc., but the amount of progress we make depends on the spiritual tide, and that, he said, can only be affected on our knees. I believe that for us the tide is already turning. There have been an abundance of dreams and visions. God is speaking. But more importantly, we feel helpless, dependent on God's grace and so prayer is increasing. I believe we are going to see a remarkable move of God. Whenever there has been a spiritual awakening it seems that prayer is always a vital key. But how are we pray? That's what I want to look at next in a series of blogs called 'Praying in the Spirit', watch this space. |
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