Does Praying in the Spirit Mean Praying in Tongues?

by
Jason Dulle
JasonDulle@yahoo.com

Question:

We often use the term "praying in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20) to mean praying in tongues. Can you give me Biblical evidence that this is really what it means?



Answer:

Where we see that praying in or with the Spirit identified as praying in tongues is I Corinthians 14:14-15 where Paul said, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding."

Paul said if he prayed in an unknown tongue his spirit was praying, but his understanding was unfruitful. His prayer in tongues was truly an effectual prayer, but was a spiritual prayer (of the human spirit). He could not understand the meaning of his prayers with his human intellect because they were not prayers intelligible to the mind, but only to the spirit. He resolved then, to both pray with the spirit and to pray with understanding. The contrast made between the two (with the spirit, with the understanding) clearly indicates that to pray with the spirit was to pray without understanding. What kind of prayers were made without understanding?-prayers in tongues (14:2, 18-19). Verse sixteen makes it further clear that praying in the spirit refers to tongues. Paul said that one who blessed God in the spirit would not be understood by others, and contrasted that with speaking five words with understanding (v. 19). Why would no one in the congregation understand the one who blessed God in the spirit?--because the blessing was a blessing to God in tongues.

This does not automatically mean, therefore, that the Bible is referring to praying in tongues in Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 20. While such is a likely interpretation of those passages, it is possible that these passages are simply referring to praying in accordance with the Spirit of God. Such does not require tongues, and could be done in our native tongue. Seeing that praying in tongues is spirit-prayer, however, naturally makes it conducive to praying in accordance with the Spirit of God. This fact, coupled with the definition of praying in/with the spirit in I Corinthians 14:14-15 lends us to believe that tongues are either the subject of Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 20, or are included in the subject along with prayer in our native tongue.

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