WHAT JUDE SAID ABOUT PRAYER !

WHAT JUDE SAID ABOUT PRAYER: Jude also says something about prayer that is enlightening and helpful. (Jude 20-21). "But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of God, (in the Word of God), looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Jesus teaching here agree with what Paul said to the church at Corinth: "For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth. . .," And "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself. . ." (1 Corinthians 14:14,4). The word "edify" means to build up. Praying in an unknown tongue edifies or bills of the believer. You could say it is a means of "spiritual muscle building. He also said, keep yourselves in the love of God." This portion of the Scripture agrees with what Jesus said: in (John 14:21-24). "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas said on the him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? Jesus answered, and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my Words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings; and the Word which you hear is not mine: but the Father's, who sent me." Observe that the Lord correlates love for Him with obedience to Him. To love Christ Jesus means to care enough about Him to keep His commandments which is his Words (vv.23-24). But we cannot keep His commandments unless we search the Scriptures to find out what they are. And He is not talking about the 10 Commandments of old. He is simply talking about the saying or the Words of Jesus ! it didn't say praying in the Holy Spirit will build up your faith. He said, ". . . Building up yourselves on your most holy faith. . ." It's foolish to take a take out of its setting and try to prove something with it. We should try to make a verse say something that doesn't agree with the rest of the passage. We must interpret the verse in the light of the whole passage. We must study it in context, putting all the verses together. Then one verse will help and modify the other and they will fit together. (Romans 10:17) tells us how to build up our faith. "So then faith, cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." What are you listening to ! We build up our faith through the study of God's Word. Then, through prayer in tongues or in our understanding we build up ourselves spiritually on the faith we already have. We can build spiritual muscle tone into our everyday lives as we are edifyed through praying in the Spirit or in our understanding.