“Whom I serve with my spirit” is a phrase within Romans chapter 1, verse 9 that begs a closer look and “always in my prayers” accompanied by “without ceasing” will shed much-needed light on how to study the Bible!
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. Rom. 1:9,10
Paul said “with my spirit” because he meant my spirit. Here he was not speaking of the Holy Spirit but his own spirit which was dead but brought to life when he was born again by the Spirit of God. The natural man has a dead spirit that is made eternally alive when he believes and trusts the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1Cor. 2:14 Based upon this scripture please allow me to ask you to ask yourself the following questions:
If the AV1611 Bible is the words of the Living God to the English-speaking Peoples and you cannot understand, accept, or TOLERATE them could it be because you are still a natural man and a not born again man?
If the statement that the AV1611 is God’s words and all other versions are perversions sounds ridiculous and offensive to you, could it be that this seems to be foolishness to you because you are still a natural man?
If a few words like thee, thou, ye and etc. in the AV1611 throw you for a loop, is it because you are still a natural man and not born again?
Take a little while to ponder the above questions while we move on to the second part of verse 9. Lets look at the phrases “always in my prayers and without ceasing”. These phrases are used with exception. Allow me to explain. With exception simply put means there are implied and obvious exceptions to what is being said. In other words Paul did not make mention of those he was writing to without doing anything else. He more than likely did not mention the Romans when he thanked God for his food three or more times a day. Paul carried out his other life and ministry functions and did not spend every waking moment praying for the Romans. He simply meant that he prayed on a regular basis and habitually about visiting the Romans to preach the gospel. See verse 10 for details. But the spiritually ignorant will take phrases like that an wrest them to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.
It would seem that his prayers and delayed answer to his prayers prompted his Epistle to the Romans and laid out the plan of salvation for those Romans and all Gentiles to this very day. As a result of his prayer request he did get to preach to the Romans (Acts 23:11 and 27:24) and God gave him a bonus by inspiring and preserving his Epistle to the Romans in English (AV1611), French, German, Italian and other languages for billions throughout the ages.
Good post Zeke :)