It was back in the late 80’s that I learned this lesson. I was at a three day conference. I was a newbie to all things of the Spirit and therefore too naive to know that when someone was “slain in the Spirit” you don’t go near them. The Lord told me to go over to a woman I had met that day as she was silently lying on the floor. I leaned over her and felt as though I was grieving, crying for a child who was dead, begging the Lord to bring her back to life. I didn’t fully understand at the time but I knew it was her spirit and I knew that I had to do what He was telling me to do.

We had met in a small group that day. She was sad. She was so faithful to the Lord but had never experienced joy in her life. She had begged Him for years and had honored Him with her life, even though she had never felt His love. It seemed tragic to me and I had not understood how this could possibly be.

My spiritual mentor later corrected me for going over to her as she lay there, saying I was never to do that- interrupt someone slain in the Spirit. I felt awful. I felt frightened. Later, from afar, I watched the woman on the floor get up and leave the room silently. The entire night I begged the Lord to forgive me for what I had done, if I had operated outside of His will. It was difficult to go to sleep. But I kept coming back to the memory of what He had told me. I just surrendered.

The next morning, I received a call from this woman over whom I had prayed. She sounded so full of joy and love and happiness! I was amazed! She asked what I had prayed over her, that for the first time in her life that she could remember she had slept through the night, she had had no bad dreams, she woke up full of peace and joy that she had never experienced before. She was indeed a new creation. She was so grateful, and wouldn’t stop gushing with elation! The prayer she had prayed for decades had finally been answered!

I told her that the Lord had directed me to pray that He birth a new spirit within her, that hers had died. And so He did.

She stayed in contact with me for years, ended up married with children and her joy never left. She had been a loner, unable to make human relationships work well prior to this. It made sense.

And it was a lesson well learned.

Since that time, doing ministry, I have met many, many people whose spirits were either shattered within them (think a shattered piece of glass through which the light of the Lord cannot reflect clearly, only scattered) or they had died in spirit as a result of in utero trauma or any of life’s traumas. These are the people who seem lifeless, as though something is just missing, who have a hard time receiving love as though their antennas are broken. No matter how much love surrounds them, they don’t experience it. Can you think of anyone you know that sounds like this? They are not rare.

If you know of anyone who fits this description, you now know how to pray.

Father,

Please restore a right spirit within us. Please give us a new spirit or heal our spirit, Lord, that it would function in such a way that we can receive Your Spirit and the fullness of Your love and Your joy.

We love you, Lord,

Amen