Shared…
The following excerpt was taking from Tongues Beyond the Upper Room by Kenneth E. Hagin:
Since praying in tongues is Spirit-directed prayer, it eliminates the possibility of selfishness entering into our prayers.
Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that GOOD, and ACCEPTABLE, and PERFECT, will of God.”
If you persist in praying selfishly out of your own carnal thinking, you may find yourself asking for only the acceptable will of God, not His perfect will. On the other hand, we’ve seen that when you pray in the Spirit, you pray out the perfect will of God.
If God’s people pray and ask for things to be a certain way even if it is not God’s best for them, nor His perfect will—God will often permit it. I want to prove that to you from the Bible, because a lot of folks doubt that statement. They claim, “But if God granted something, it has to be His perfect will. I’ll give you an illustration from the Scriptures to show you that God sometimes answers prayer that isn’t His perfect will. It’s found in First Samuel 8.
God didn’t want the Israelites to have a king like all the surrounding nations. God wanted to be their King, but the children of Israel wanted to be like all the rest of the nations, and they kept persisting in their petition for a king. Finally, God said, “All right, go ahead. You have My permission to have a king.” But from that point on, the Israelites were never in the perfect will of God again, even though God blessed them and helped them as much as He could.
This is where a lot of people have missed it. Many times God has dealt with them and told them what His will is for their lives. But they keep after Him, praying out of their natural understanding for something they want. Finally, God says, “All right, if you want it that way, go ahead.”
But I’d rather be in God’s perfect will than in His permissive will, wouldn’t you? It’s just so much better!
I remember a dear young lady who made the same mistake the Israelites did when they asked for something that wasn’t God’s perfect will. She suffered greatly for that mistake. This young woman was one of my church members when I pastored in Texas. She was a beautiful singer with a wonderful ability to speak to youth about God.
But this young woman was dating a fellow who wasn’t even saved. He’d go to church occasionally and he claimed to be a Christian, but it was quite obvious that he was not. She finally got engaged to this young man, even though she knew all the time it wasn’t the will of God.
One night when we were all around the altar praying, this young lady came down to the altar and prayed through about the matter. God spoke clearly to her, telling her not to marry that man. Afterward, she got up and hugged all the ladies and shook hands with the men. “Well, that’s settled,” she declared. ”I’m going to break up with him!”
The young woman did break up with this fellow. However, over the process of time, she got back with him and wound up marrying him! You might ask, “Why would she do that?” Because she kept praying about it until the Lord finally told her, “Go ahead and marry him if that’s what you want to do.”
You see, if you just keep hounding God like the Israelites did and like this young woman did, He’ll eventually give you permission to do what you want to do, even though it isn’t His perfect will for your life. That’s why when God tells you to do something—whether His instruction comes from the Bible or the Holy Spirit speaks directly to your heart—you don’t need to pray about it. You just need to do it!
Since God really did tell that young woman not to marry that man, she shouldn’t have prayed about it any further. She should have just obeyed God. But she kept praying and praying and praying about it until finally the Lord told her, “Go ahead and marry him if that’s what you want to do.”
Notice that the Lord didn’t tell her, “It’s My will for you to marry him” or “Go ahead and marry him—it’s fine with Me!” So the young lady married this man—and soon she became the most miserable person in town! We didn’t see her for months at a time. She didn’t even come to church, yet she lived right there in town.
Finally, this woman wrote a letter to one of the older ladies in the congregation who’d been like a mother to her. The older woman called me and said, “Brother Kenneth, I have to read this to you!”
In the letter, the young woman wrote, “I’ve been locked up for five months. My husband is so jealous of me that when he goes to work, he locks me in the house. I don’t have a key, and I don’t dare go out alone. I don’t go anywhere without him. He got jealous of me and my guitar and had a mad fit and broke the guitar to smithereens. Then he got jealous of me and my piano, and he broke that up too.”
No wonder God told this young woman not to marry that man! The letter continued, “I’ve been a prisoner for five months in my own house.” She finally found a way to smuggle this letter out of her house and asked a friend to mail it for her. What a miserable situation!
This young woman might have thought, Why did God ever put me in this mess? But God isn’t the One who got her in that mess. It’s true He said, “If that’s what you want, go ahead and do it” because she kept persisting, asking and asking Him for it. But He never told the woman, “That is My will. Walk in it, and be blessed.” No, He said, “Okay! Okay! If that’s what you want, go ahead.”
That’s the reason you have to get the Word of God in you first before you pray. Make sure the Word is abiding in you! As Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Then make sure you are setting aside time to pray every day in other tongues. When God’s Word abides in you and you’re built up in your spirit by praying in other tongues, you will know you’re praying in line with God’s will about every situation!
Never let yourself get outside of God’s Word when you pray. Build a strong foundation of the Word in your prayer life. If you don’t have that foundation, you may go off after a desire that’s not God’s will for you. And eventually, God may answer you just as He answered Israel: “All right, go ahead. You can have it, if that’s what you want.”
It was not God’s highest will for Israel to have a king—but they wanted one, so they got one. And from that point on, they were never again in the perfect will of God. That doesn’t mean God didn’t continue to bless them all He could, but He couldn’t bless them to the fullest extent He wanted to.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not satisfied with God’s permissive will or with His second best—I’m going after God’s best! That’s why I value so highly the gift of praying with other tongues. When I pray in tongues, I am fully assured that I’ve left behind all possibility of selfish praying. Thank God for the ability to pray out the perfect will of God!
If you would like to purchase this book, please contact LW Store online or call (763) 315-7015.
Prayed…
We thank You, Father, for the balance between the Word and the Spirit
Every time we get together, You are always in the midst of us
We welcome Your presence, Lord
In Your presence it is always fresh and new
Coming before You with pure hearts because of the blood
Believing to pray out everything that is in Your heart
You have lifted us out of our old ways and into new ways
Thank You, Father, that Your word is true and You never change
For Your manifested presence in our lives and our loved ones lives
We worship and honor You, Father
Taking each step as You direct
Prayers we prayed years ago, they shall come to pass now
Doors, be opened; locks, be removed in Jesus’ name
Continually praying in the Spirit—preparing the way for tomorrow
Thank You for the blood the power of Your Holy Spirit
Filling and leading us to move with You
Thank You for this day – we call it blessed
Honoring You in every way in Jesus’ name
