Jude 1:20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
Jude's first inclination was to write a book concerning the salvation shared by all followers and believers in Christ Jesus; however, God led him in another direction. Because some clandestinely slipped into the congregations of Christ Jesus' Church, God led Jude to write a warning about these apostates. When Jude admonishes us to build ourselves up, he refers to building upon the foundation of Christ Jesus; He is our cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19-22). The foundation of our faith is the Holy Word of God, that is, Christ Jesus (John 1:1 & 1:14). If we shut ourselves off from the Word of God, we are, in essence, ignoring what God is telling us. Bible study is not an option for the Christian; God's Word is not a spiritual buffet that we can go thru and choose what is most appetizing to us and walk away from the rest. There is a massive difference between reading a few verses of the Bible every day and possessing an understanding of God's Word and applying that to our everyday lives (Acts 20:32; Matthew 4:4; 1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18; Job 23:12; Jeremiah 15:16).
Praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in and through the direction of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This connecting with God is not some mechanical prayer that we have prayed every day for years, and we recite the exact words over and over again. This speaking with God is a prayer in which we are engaged with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit joins us in our prayer life and directs our prayers towards where God wants us to travel (Romans 8:26-28). Prayer and the study of God's Holy Word are inseparable (Acts 6:4). Jude's advice to his readers is to remain strong in their struggle against apostates is a continued advance in the faith or daily spiritual growth.
This growth is a total surrender to Christ Jesus and an active and abundant study of God's Word, a consecrated prayer life along with service to God and others. This policy and approach have not changed since God penned these words through Jude in the last two centuries. For today's believers and followers in Christ Jesus, the defense against false teachers is a daily spiritual growth along with an in-depth study of God's Word. Paul tells us in his letter to Timothy that God gave us His Holy Word to make us wise for salvation and give us a path to spiritual maturity (2 Timothy 3:15-17). Prayer through the leading, guiding, and direction of God's Holy Spirit should accompany any study of God's Holy Word. The advice of Jude in this verse of scripture reiterates the guidance from Paul to the Christians in Ephesus. Paul admonished them to use the "Sword of the Spirit," which is the Word of God in our battles with the forces of evil that surround us in this World, and to pray in the spirit (Ephesians 6:17-18).
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