Exposition
As established earlier, prayer is communication between man and God in Christian circles. This communication takes various forms such as speaking in tongues, praying with words that you understand and sometimes you may want to do that through songs. Mostly, the level one gets to determine how one communicates with God, especially as Pentecostals.
Prayer is good. It is the energy house of the Christian. According to Rev James McKeown, “the work is prayer and prayer is the work”. Praying is difficult but once you give yourself to prayer, it becomes the surest way to succeed.
According to 1 Corinthians 14:15, Paul mentioned that he would pray with his spirit and his mind also. Paul praying with the mind here means praying with words that he understood. You have to pray with your understanding when thanking God and when praying for someone who is also present at the place of prayer. This would enable the second person to appreciate the content of the prayer. Inferring from verse 16 of 1 Corinthians 14, praying with understanding also helps unbelievers to understand what is being prayed for and enables them to respond accordingly.
If prayer is also to build your hearers up, then it must be said with your understanding. The words of your prayer serve as an encouragement to those who hear them, a relief to the broken hearted and a revival to the weak and weary. Paul would pray in the spirit for self-edification and would also pray with his understanding to build his audience up. These two are very important to us as Pentecostals. One must not be done to the detriment of the other.