What follows is the contents of a blog post that caught my attention. I have been conversing with the author now and again, partly because I think I know where he is going since there is a familiarity with a time in my life when I embraced the ‘something more’ teaching I see in these ‘teachings’. There are some good points and others that seem to me to be a bit off – using particular passages to support teaching points I do not l find in scripture. I am interested in others’ views concerning what is quoted below below.

Praying in the Spirit leads to the pouring out of the Spirit. If you want to preach in the Spirit, you must first pray in the Spirit. Let this be you: “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:18-19).

The power of a church is not how filled a building is with people, but how filled the people are with the Holy Spirit. There is not power in numbers but in the Holy Spirit.

Natural prayers move men, praying in the Spirit moves God.

Natural prayers only ask for natural things. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5).

Natural prayers seek His approval of your will, praying in the Spirit places you into His.

“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). You know you are praying in the Spirit when even the building can’t sit still.

Whatever fills you defines you. If you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, then you are just full of yourself. Beware the intellectually filled man who is empty of the Spirit of God.

Prayers without words speak the loudest. “…For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).

In your prayers, don’t lower the Lord into your plans, but ask Him to raise you into His.

You know you are praying in the Spirit when you can hear the Spirit. “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away” (Acts 13:2-3). Never underestimate the power gained through the discipline of fasting and prayer.

Fasting separates you from the natural such that you can step into the spiritual. Spiritual prayers never walk on natural grounds.

Natural prayers can touch the heart of man, but praying in the Spirit places you in the heart of God. “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God…” (Jude 20-21).

Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you to pray in the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus taught, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things…” (John 14:26).

I suggested to the author that I suspected  “scripture abuse” and I explained why I felt using passages to teach something not in the text was abusing scripture. My comment was more for the readers who  offered a chorus of ‘Amens’ to his teaching.

Was I wrong in saying something? Was I too harsh? Am I holding hands with the Devil, as the author has suggested to me?