Richard Roberts
One thing I do to stay on track with God concerns my prayer communication with God, or praying in the Spirit, as the apostle Paul talks about in I Corinthians 14.There is a sovereign manifestation of the gift of tongues, but there is also a daily devotional prayer language that every one of us has the right to pray in.
I once sat in the office of the President of Ghana, having no idea what to do because I experienced something then that I’d never experienced before. He not only had members of his cabinet in the room, but he also had members of the media. Usually when I meet with the leader of a nation, it’s behind closed doors. But this was different. It was an open-door meeting, and I knew that everything I said was going to be on national television that night!
I didn’t know what the protocol was, so I began to pray in tongues. Then I stopped and prayed in my own language, and God gave me the interpretation. He showed me what to do and say to the President. After we had talked for about an hour, I asked, “Mr. President, may I lay hands on you and pray?” He said, “If you hadn’t asked, I was going to ask you to.” So I took his hand and we prayed.
After the meeting, he reached out to shake my hand, and he wouldn’t let go. He just kept holding it. I wondered what he was doing. Finally he looked at me and said, “Mr. Roberts, I have shaken hands with many men in my life. Some hands are cold and some hands are hot. But your hand has the right temperature.”
I said, “What you are feeling is not me; it’s the power of the Holy Spirit.” He knew what I meant. That all happened because I prayed in tongues and then in my own language. This has been invaluable in my life, and I believe it can be in yours also.
(If you would like more information on praying in the spirit or the gift of tongues, go to www.oralroberts.com and order my booklet, A Supernatural Way to Pray. If you would like prayer, please call the Abundant Life Prayer Group at 918-495-7777.)