This chapter concludes Solomon’s temple dedication with many sacrifices (complete with fire from heaven), and much feasting for all of Israel.
“Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.’ ” (v12-15)
God affirms that He heard Solomon’s prayer, and will respond according to his request. God will restore and bless His people if they are truly repentant and obedient, however, if they turn their backs on God, they will be forsaken or punished.
We don’t have a physical temple today where ‘God’s ear would be attentive to hear our prayers’. Instead, our hearts and bodies are now the living temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor 6:19-20). Paul reminds us that Jesus paid our sin-debt to God on the cross, and Christ followers are now living temples for the Holy Spirit. Since we and the Holy Spirit are joined, we can now ‘pray in the Spirit’.
‘Praying in the Spirit’ would take a while to fully explain, so I’ll attempt to summarize. If we ‘pray in the flesh’, we are pushing prayers forward to God using our own strength, wisdom, and fortitude. These prayers are often difficult or forced, and we can feel tongue-tied or like the prayers fall on deaf ears. These prayers are disconnected from the life-giving Spirit and therefore do not seem effective.
When we ‘pray in the Spirit’, we do nothing, the Spirit provides the words, empowers the prayer, and then carries the prayer forward to God the Father. This requires humility, simply enjoying a restored relationship with God, and praying God’s promises back to Him with boldness. These prayers often seem lively, exhilarating, and are more powerful because the life-giving Spirit of God is involved.
I encourage us to learn the difference between these two ways of praying, and begin/continue practicing ‘praying in the Spirit’. Since this is a summary, I would recommend reading further on trusted sites such as DesiringGod.org: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-pray-in-the-holy-spirit
Father God, our Beloved Creator and King, great and mighty is Your name. Father please teach us what it means to ‘pray in Your Spirit’, and allow Your Spirit to inform and empower our prayers. May we then have Your ear, and experience Your awesome power in this world. Please help us to lean on Your Spirit more and more each day, embracing our relationship with You, and learning Your promises. We honor, glorify and praise You with our mouths, hearts and bodies, forever and ever, amen.
~ Conqueror in Training