WWUTT 2395 Q&A Speaking Jesus Over You, Praying AI Prayers, Speaking in Tongues Part 3

Prayer, Wisdom, and Speaking Grace

What does it mean when someone speaks the name of Jesus over you? Is that a practice in the Bible somewhere? Can we pray prayers that have been developed by AI? And what did Paul mean when he said, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, when we understand the text?

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, brought to you by Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. For more information about our ministry, go to www .tt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, babe. You're welcome.

We're going to be talking mostly about prayer today. So our questions seem to be centered on that theme. And being a Friday edition of the broadcast, you can send your questions to WhenWeUnderstandTheText at gmail .com at at gmail .com at not it when we understand the text at gmail .com at or go to www .tt .com.

Record us a voicemail. We'd love to hear from you that way. First off, let's start with some scripture. We got Proverbs chapter 10. We're up to verse 12. Awesome. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

You got a person that's really contentious, seems to want to stir the conflict a little bit. It's because they have hatred in their heart. They aren't considerate of their brothers and sisters in the Lord or of anybody.

Seems to be that they just love conflict. Yeah. They feed on conflict. Yeah. You known people like that? They don't feel like they're alive unless they're in the middle of a conflict. But love covers all offenses, is not looking for the way of strife, is not trying to sow division among people.

But how do we resolve this? How do we even look for the best in one another? Not looking for those little things that are going to divide us that we can go at each other on. Right. But we're speaking grace to each other, speaking peace, trying to bring, yeah, forgiving one another.

Exactly that. Yes. Colossians chapter 3, forgiving one another is Christ has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Next verse in verse 13, on the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found. But a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.

Ouch. I wish we were still implementing that.

Well, I mean, some households do.

Yeah. Yeah. Parenting, definitely. Yeah. Of course, as I say that there's probably sometimes I deserved the rod for lacking sense. Verse 14, the wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.

That kind of keeps the theme of what we're reading here. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. So the mouth of the fool is is just ruining people instead of looking for the best way, looking for the peaceful way.

How how can we be Christ like in our words? Yeah. They're looking for those ways that either benefit themselves or sow division among one another.

And usually tearing somebody down.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Speak grace, give the words that give grace to those who hear Ephesians 429. All right. Let's get to some of our questions here as we talk about how we speak to God. I've talked about this recently, too, as we were in Luke chapter 11, just finished up Luke chapter 11.

And that chapter begins with Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. Yes. So how is it that we are to pray? How are our words to honor God, especially when we pray or interceding for our brethren when we lift up their needs and their requests before others?

And speaking of that, folks, if you remember us in your prayers, pray for our church. Yes, please. Like many churches, we've got a lot of things going on. But if you would just remember Providence Reformed Baptist Church in your prayers, we would greatly appreciate it.

Yes. Some good things in the future, some difficult things that are going on. I'm not talking about their strife among us or anything like that. No, just health needs and and different things of that nature.

Yeah. So would appreciate your prayers. This question comes from Becky and she says, hi, Pastor Gabe, my husband and I enjoyed worshiping with your church in February. Oh, awesome. I don't remember this, Becky.

I'm so sorry. This is a different Becky. Not me, Becky. I don't recall, but I appreciate it. It's just not coming to mind right away. So she says, my question, what does it mean to speak the name of Jesus?

For context, I visited a church for the baptism of my sister. And during the sermon, the pastor stopped mid-sermon and said that he was speaking the name of Jesus over the congregation. The worship team had just sang a song with that same phrase in the lyrics.

Thanks for your help as my husband and I have not heard the Lord's name used in this way. I hope you and Becky can make it to G3 in September. If so, see you there. Oh, I'm already going to be in Georgia.

Yes. I think right before G3. Yes. So it's the it's the White Harvest Conference that's going to be going on there. And I'm one of the speakers along with Jim Osman, Justin Peters, Tim Challies is going to be there and Todd Friel of Wretched.

Awesome. So I'm speaking at that conference. And then I think G3 is the next week. So I haven't totally devoted myself to it yet. Jim has asked me the same thing. It's like, hey, you got to stick around and go to G3.

So, yeah, I might get there. We're not going to do a booth this year. Yeah. So this is going to be the first time since when did we start doing that?

Twenty eighteen. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I think so.

So this will be our first year since twenty seventeen that we haven't had a booth at G3. Wow. Feel like a chapter's closing or something. It's just different. It's harder for us. I mean, we're all the way out in Arizona.

Yeah. First year we did it, we were in Kansas. Right. Then we were traveling from Texas. Yeah, we could drive. So, yeah, we just can't drive and take all of our stuff with us. Yeah. So that's kind of why.

Yeah. But if I can work it out while I'm there in Georgia, I'll just stick around a little bit longer and go to G3. Yeah. All right. So this whole thing of speaking the name of Jesus, have you heard anybody do this before?

It sounds familiar, but not. I mean, in the middle of a sermon.

Yeah. So it sounds like he just he just stopped the sermon and said, I want to speak the name of Jesus over you right now. And I have seen this. You have. Yeah, because it comes from the charismatic circles that I used to run.

I was thinking, too. Yes. So there is a song that was written. Hang on. I got to look up the artist's name. I had it in front of me before, but I've since closed it. Charity Gale. So she has this song called I Speak Jesus.

And one of the lines in the bridge of the song is I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind because I know there is peace within your presence. I speak Jesus. Now, this comes from you'll you'll see a preacher in a charismatic service do this occasionally.

I just want to speak Jesus over over you or somebody who's leading prayer or something like that. So what does this mean? Well, it will you'll probably hear in the context of their prayers something like in the name of Jesus, I want to speak the name of Jesus over every addiction or over every illness in the room.

Right. That's what I've heard.

That phrase. So you have heard that. Yeah, that but not like stopping a sermon to say it like.

That's that's a little. Oh, this this is common. Yeah, this this was pretty common where I'm also.

I also grew up where, you know, the Catholic Church, no matter what church you go to, it's still the same thing. Like you can go to one in a different language, but you still have the same thing. Yeah, right.

Everything's the same in order.

Yeah. So it's pretty typical that a charismatic preacher might get a feel of something in the middle of a sermon and go, you know what, we just got to stop right now and do this, you know, or something.

I'm just feeling right now that the spirit is telling me something. OK, and then we'll go into something else. So I saw this quite a bit. Yeah. In a lot of these charismatic type sermons or or they might even make a show of it.

Like, for example, they've got their sermon written out or they've got all the notes and then they're going, you know what, I'm just off script now because the spirit's leading me somewhere else. So they'll make a show out of it.

Like I I had prepared this. Right. But now we've got to be doing this.

I was going to say, do they ever get back to like. No. When they interrupt the sermon,.

No, they ever get. OK. I've never seen it anyway. OK. Just curious. There is a there was one sermon I saw. There's a number of years ago. But Stephen Furtick did this. And oh, he you know what kind of hype man he is.

Becky's making a face. You can't see that. But that's that's what she's doing. The way he hypes stuff up, you know. So he did have like this huge plexiglass pulpit so you could see everything. Right. Everything's got to be a show.

Right. So you're able to see the notes he's got spread out on his pulpit. And then he gets to a point where, you know, he's he's all like amped up in the middle of the sermon. Now he's throwing papers around like I had all this.

But now now Jesus is preaching or something like that. Yeah. He just he just goes crazy. That's what he does. That's his M .O. That's so true. But anyway, so I can't even back to the whole thing of I speak Jesus.

There's nothing about saying that or doing that that somehow brings more power onto the prayer. Right. Or onto the service or onto the person that you're praying for. Because remember that in Acts chapter 19, the sons of Sceva were claiming to cast out demons.

All right. In the name of Jesus. Right. And they were just doing it for themselves. So it was from a heart that did not really fear God. Didn't they get paid for it or something? Well, they were sons of an itinerant preacher is what it says.

So likely they were probably doing it for money. Okay. Maybe it doesn't say that explicitly. Okay. Simon, the magician was the one. Maybe I just had heard that. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was Simon Magnus that had said, hey, I'll pay you money for the Holy Spirit.

And Peter rebuked him. I gotcha. That was a so that was a different thing where he wanted the Holy Spirit and was willing to pay money for it. Believing now that I have this power, look how much more impressive I.

Am. I forgot about that. Yeah. No, I was thinking about the the sons, the sons of Sceva. Yeah,.

That's what you were thinking. Yeah. So it could be it could be that. Yeah, they were getting paid for that. I heard it somewhere. I don't know. So it says that this was this is Acts 19, beginning in verse eleven.

God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchief or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them.

This was while he was preaching at Ephesus. So this was God showing his power there at Ephesus. Right. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.

Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them. Jesus, I know. And Paul, I recognize. But who are you? And then he works his demon jujitsu on these guys.

I don't think that's in there. OK, that's the Gabe translation. And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. But consider what these Jewish exorcists were saying.

Verse 13, again, some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. So they were saying the name of Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits.

And did that do anything?

Well, it got them in trouble.

It did not have.

It backfired.

It didn't have any power in and of itself to cast out these evil spirits. They were doing it in a self-serving sort of a way. Paul is getting popular out of this, so we're going to do it, too. And if we just speak the name of Jesus over people, then it's going to have the power that we invoke upon these evil spirits.

And so they're treating it like magic words.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Like it has more power.

Right. So there's nothing about that inherently that seems to add power or oomph to your prayer.

Right.

But can you do that? Can you speak the name of Jesus over somebody?

Sure.

Sure. Yeah. You can. And that's what we should be doing, really. I mean, when you're praying for somebody.

That's what I was thinking, too.

Saying, God, have compassion on this person.

Yeah.

May your power move through them that they may have the strength to overcome their addiction or something like that. So just calling on the name of Jesus doesn't automatically give it power. But we have a heart that desires God and that he would move or would work in the midst of a situation.

We're humbly coming before him and acknowledging we have no power here.

Right.

But you have power. And Lord, if it be your will, would you please show yourself in such a way that this person has the strength to overcome this addiction or to endure this pain or this sickness? A lot of times when it comes to praying over somebody who's sick, we're just praying for their healing.

Right.

But how often do you see Paul doing that in his letters?

Right.

He doesn't pray for their healing, but rather that they would continue to hold fast to Christ and endure in the midst of difficult situations. So we pray that a person would hold fast to Christ in the midst of those things.

It's okay to pray for healing.

Yes.

But we especially want to keep our eyes focused on God. So we're not developing any unrealistic expectations of, I know that if I pray or if I call upon the name of the Lord Jesus on this situation, then I will be healed.

Right. He's not a genie.

Yeah.

Like you can't wish for it. You can pray about it. But I also, whenever I pray for healing from an illness, I also pray that I may suffer well in it. And so even though I am suffering miserably in some cases, that it just, that I do it well and pleasing to the Lord.

Right.

So I just, I have a hard time with that phrase though, because usually it's not meant the way it should be.

Which phrase?

The one about speaking Jesus over.

Yeah. I speak Jesus over you. Yeah.

It just, it bothers me so much because people use it in such a wrong way.

And it's used in vain.

It is. Yes.

Like if we have a self-serving desire, one that does not glorify God in, even in our prayers, then we could be speaking the name of God in vain, even when we're praying.

Yeah.

So we have to be mindful of that. We're coming with the right kind of heart. Even James rebukes people for praying and not receiving because you pray and ask with wrong.

Motives.

Right.

So may our hearts be right before the Lord.

Yeah.

Coming to God and saying, God make my heart right.

Yes.

That when I'm praying to you, I'm not praying for myself, but I desire that God would be glorified in the midst of this.

And teaching our kids, I have a hard time with them getting stuck in the rut of like, it's almost like they're doing wishes, you know?

Yeah.

And I'm like, God is not, he's not like a genie or he's not, what's the other one?

Yeah. I don't know. Just a, a father who spoils his kids or something. I mean, I don't, I don't know what kind of term you're looking for. I'm sure there's gotta be a term for that.

There is a term out there, I'm sure. But just someone that they go to and they make wishes and then the wishes come true and you know, like it's magic or something. And, and so it's just like, you know, you, you need to have the right approach to it.

But then how do you explain that to a child who, you know, all they hear are these things that you wish for, you know?

Right.

When we pray, we're just asking God for things. I mean, some of that is, some of that's my fault. The way I'm leading my children in prayer, having to mindfully think of things that are, they're like, okay, we're just, I'm just teaching them to ask for things.

What are some more biblical ways to pray? And so I'll teach them to pray psalms or pray scripture.

Yeah.

In a way, but, but yeah.

I mean, when they're little, when they're little, it's, that's just all that comes to mind. Because like our three-year-old, when he goes, you know, and I want to go to the ostrich farm and I want to do this.

And I want to eat ice cream and cake.

And I want to eat ice cream and cake and pizza. And I was like, well, you know, son.

Yeah, I think I can help you out a little bit more with this.

Yeah.

Understand why you want to go to the zoo and all this other stuff, but there's other things to pray for.

Yes.

And the kids will, yeah, they'll take down the family members. We pray for this family member and this family member.

Yes.

Again, always good. But what other things can we be praying for that we have the right heart and the right mind going before the Lord like this?

And not just to have it either.

Yeah.

Like you said, getting stuck in a rut. So we're praying the same thing every time.

Right.

So how do you get out of that mindset? And I'm not just, yeah. Wishing unto God for this.

Yeah.

Because then in that case, it's like we're reciting magic spells too.

Yes, exactly.

How many times have I prayed for this now that I can finally get it?

Yes.

But at the same time, in the Bible, it says that we are to be not repetitive, but...

Pray without ceasing.

Yeah, pray without ceasing.

1 Thessalonians 5.

Be persistent and come to him often with these prayer requests. And so I think it's a matter of what you were saying earlier about, it's a matter of your heart. Why are you desiring these things? Is it for selfish reasons or is it for the glory of God?

Yeah.

Being well is obviously selfish reasons, which is why I always tag on there. If it's your will, Lord, I would appreciate this.

Yes, right. Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, some of the things we're saying here actually go into the next question.

Oh, awesome.

So this is from Clinton. He says, Dear Pastor Gabe, thank you for your recent teaching on prayer. I went back to your devotions from Matthew 6 and listened to those too. I have a few questions related to this.

I've heard it said that Jesus just taught us to pray the Lord's prayer as an example of prayer, but we shouldn't actually pray that prayer. I actually had a situation that happened to me when I was serving with another pastor, where somebody in our prayer service had said, can we all pray the Lord's prayer together?

And it was discouraged from doing that, that we shouldn't pray the Lord's prayer together. But then I did it anyway, and the pastor chewed me out for that afterward.

Oh, odd.

Yeah, I'm dead serious. He said that that's not what that prayer is for, and we shouldn't just jump up and be ready to pray it whenever somebody requests it. I was just baffled by that. I don't know that I had any response for him at all during that time.

I just remember getting chewed out for it. We just did the Lord's prayer. What's the problem with that?

Yeah.

I mean, it is true that Jesus gives us that prayer as an example of prayer.

Yes.

But it's also an example.

It's an example. It's a blueprint for prayer.

Yeah.

You can pray that.

Yeah.

There's nothing wrong with praying that.

I mean, why would it be wrong?

Yeah, I know.

I know. Yeah.

I have no idea. I can't get in the guy's head. I wouldn't be able to tell you, but it's still...

I'll let you off the hook.

Yeah, thanks. It is something that as Jesus gave it to us to pray, we all know it so we can pray it together.

Yes.

Just like we might sing the doxology together or something like that.

Right.

We can pray the Lord's prayer together. That's just fine.

Right.

I don't know why that would be discouraged. But it is true also that it's kind of a blueprint for prayer. So you're looking at the parts of it.

I mean, if it was the Hail Mary, then yeah, I get it.

Let's not do that.

Yeah.

But this one's like in the Bible.

I know.

It's what Jesus... Jesus' words. What he taught his disciples to pray. And we pray scriptures all the time. So it was just odd that I...

And it is praying scripture, literally.

Exactly. It really is doing that. But anyway, Clinton goes on. That was just the first paragraph of the letter. Also, in addition to praying the Psalms, as you said, so the Psalms are not only songs, but they're prayer lyrics.

Yeah.

So we can pray those unto God. He says, what do you think about something like the prayers that are found in the Valley of Vision? Some people are coming up with prayers generated by AI. Even though a computer came up with them, would such prayers be meaningful to God if people prayed them from a heart that truly loves God?

Thank you for your devotion to teaching the word. I still have a lot to learn. I appreciate your email. So Valley of Vision, yeah. I mean, books like that, that teach you prayers, teach you how to pray.

I've prayed with the kids, the Charles Spurgeon prayers that will come in my Spurgeon devotional.

Yeah.

So we've done those together. And that's another way, like you said, about getting in a rut.

Yes.

And getting out of that rut. Well, let me get somebody else's prayer in here.

Right.

Because maybe this will help us and guide our thinking into what else we can be setting our hearts upon when we lift up our hearts in prayer to God. So Valley of Vision, very good with that. Of course, you're talking like Puritan prayers, and their hearts were way better at thinking about that than mine is.

So I appreciate that about the Valley of Vision.

They also went through a lot different circumstances, too.

Other circumstances, which is great, too. So you're listening to the prayers that people prayed through the suffering that they went through. That's a level of suffering I haven't gone through.

Right.

So, yeah, those kinds of things are great, too.

Right.

That's a great teacher in helping understand prayer, but even relating to brothers and sisters in the Lord and what they've gone through, what God has brought them through.

Yeah.

And showed his grace to them in the midst of those circumstances. So this next one's real interesting. Prayers are being generated by AI, even though a computer came up with them. Can such prayers be meaningful to God?

I mean, yes.

Yeah, and I would respond exactly like that. I mean, yes.

It's not like you're asking the AI to pray for you, you know?

Yeah, it shouldn't.

I mean, literally, you're not asking the AI to pray to God for you.

Yeah.

You're just asking AI to formulate a prayer. But the danger in asking AI to formulate a prayer is that it might not be sound because it's gathering all the information from the internet, from all sorts of different sources that you need to make sure that it is, you know, legit.

Right.

And above board, not anything shady.

Above board.

I don't know what you want to call it.

Back to 1 Thessalonians 5, you mentioned a moment ago, test everything.

Yes.

So even if you're creating a prayer through AI, you're still going to have to test it.

Right.

Nonetheless, can you pray such a prayer and it be genuine unto God? Yes.

Absolutely.

Should you?

I would discourage it.

Yeah.

I don't go to AI asking for it to generate prayers for you.

The Bible has the blueprints.

Yes.

That's a good place to start.

We want to learn how to pray. Go to the word.

Right.

That's where we go first.

Yes.

Yes, an AI prayer can be, I mean, from the bits and bytes of a computer. It's meaningless.

Right.

There's no heartfulness unto God at all. And lest anybody say, well, the heavens declare the glory of God, then why not computers? No, don't do that.

Right.

There is no heart in the computer giving glory to God. It's a tool.

Right.

So, but.

And a tool, like if you don't have, if you can't come up with words, like me, I get stuck and I'm like, uh, you know, um, then maybe you do need a little bit of, uh, advanced, um, preparation if you're doing like a public prayer or something like that.

And so you want to like, write it out, but I wouldn't ask it to formulate the whole prayer.

AI is artificial intelligence. So you're talking about something artificial.

Right.

But yeah.

Anyway, to say that, that scripture is our teacher here. The Holy spirit teaching us through the scriptures, you add a computer to that and you're just adding another element that needs to be tested, needs to be sifted through.

Am I getting this right?

Yeah.

And now you're even asking questions of, okay, well, I prayed this prayer that came from a computer. So was it genuine? Then eliminate that.

Right.

Eliminate that question from your mind by not praying a prayer that a computer came up with. And again, come to the word, look for those, uh, uh, books, teaching prayer like Donald Whitney, I think is, uh, one of the guys came up with a, or he wrote a book on praying the.

Scriptures.

So a book like that might be helpful in how you can perfect your prayers. How can I pray things that are going to be more honoring to God and really even express my heart in such a way that desires the will of God to be done in my life.

Yes.

So next I have a voicemail and we're out of time for this half of the program. So this is a voicemail I'm going to answer in the second half, in the second half hour. If you listen to us on the radio, you only get a half hour, but if you listen online, you get the full podcast, go to WWU TT and subscribe.

Here is this voicemail from Kenneth.