"What is praying in the Spirit?"- 5st September 2017

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray

for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.’ (Romans 8:26). The Greek word translated “pray in” can have several different meanings. It can mean “by means of,” “with the help of,” “in the sphere of,” and “in connection to.” Praying in the Spirit does not refer to the words we are saying. Rather, it refers to how we are praying. Praying in the Spirit is praying according to the Spirit’s leading. It is praying for things the Spirit leads us to pray as said in Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” What is ‘wordless groans?’ When we are weighed down by life’s heavy burdens, there are times when we don’t even know how to pray. Yet in these moments, “the Holy Spirit prays for us with groaning that cannot be expressed in words.” Wow! In the mystery of God’s triune nature, the very Spirit of God prays for us. And these prayers include wordless groans. Here is wonderful news for us. When you don’t know how to pray, the Spirit of God is there to help. When you run out of words, God understands your wordless sighs. When all you have to bring before God are your tears, he can read the meaning of each one. Moreover, as amazing as it sounds, the triune God is praying with you, through you, and for you. God enters into the brokenness of our world and our lives, sharing even in our groaning. Praying in the Spirit is mentioned three times in Scripture. When we say ‘praying in the Spirit,’ it is clearly taught in the Word of God, in 1 Corinthians 14:15, “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.” Again is found in Jude 20, “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit.” We come across this also in Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” That is not all. These verses are commands. God expects every Christian on earth to pray in this way. Do I? Do you? Do we see evidence of this sort of prayer in our church prayer meetings? We need to answer these questions, because above verses make clear that such prayer is linked both to our own spiritual growth and to our success in spiritual warfare. So, what exactly does it mean to pray in the Spirit? Sometimes we have so much to say to God that we tell him everything that is on our mind without any sense of shame for our sin or any conscious reliance on the Person and work of Christ. We pour out our heart without kneeling at the cross. We talk and talk without a tear on our cheek and without a sight Christ sitting at God’s right hand. This is not ‘praying in the Spirit’, because it is the Spirit’s constant ministry to convict us of our sin, to draw attention to the Saviour and to glorify him: “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11).

Sometimes we spend time in prayer, but the great themes of the Lord’s Prayer are mostly or entirely absent from what we have to say. We say in as a memorized routine ‘prayer’ repetitively even each day. But with no “spirit” in the prayer. This is not ‘praying in the Spirit’, because the Word that he has inspired tells us what themes our Saviour expects us to cover as we find in Matthew 6:9-13). Yes, the whole Word of God is of use in directing our prayers. By instruction and example it shows us how to pray for a vast array of subjects. But the themes contained in the Lord’s Prayer will obviously and always have special prominence as something we learned as kids. Similarly, sometimes we find ourselves simply ‘saying our prayers’, as a routine requirement but our heart is not in it. We are cold and listless. We have no fervor. We have no faith. We have no energy. We know that there is no chance of us praying with importunity. Again this is not ‘praying in the Spirit’, because His Word constantly shows us that when people really pray, their whole soul is in what they are praying. When one is truly praying in the spirit, their emotions are fully engaged Philippians 1:9-11, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” They lay hold of God’s promises for example as found in James 1:5-8, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”We can also learn from the bible that true prayer worshipers will pray on and on until they receive what they are asking for as we can learn from Luke 11:9-10, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” As stated above sometimes when we come to pray, depending on our circumstances we simply do not know what we should pray for. Nothing comes to mind. Despite our knowledge of what the Scriptures teach about prayer, we find ourselves completely at a loss. This is not ‘praying in the Spirit’, because when he is at work in a dumb heart he stirs up ‘agonising longings and which never find words’ (J.B. Phillips), but which impel the heart in a God-ward direction, and which become unspoken prayers in line with the will of God as said in Romans 8:26-27, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” The believer’s heart, awestruck, silent, and prayer-filled, becomes conscious of being a holy sanctuary. So it is, by reflecting on what ‘praying in the Spirit’ is not, we come to discover what it is. It is approaching God as a failure and a sinner, and expecting to be received by him on no other basis than that ‘the Son of God who loves me and gave His life for me’ as stated in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Our praying should be in accordance with Gods holy Word, giving prominence to the themes contained in the Lord’s Prayer. It is praying from the heart, with fervor, faith and importunity. And it is more than words. There is a consciousness of inner constraint. The desires of the heart are being moved in a particular direction. Something is happening deep down inside me which is too wonderful to fully describe. In the name of God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is talking to God the Father, and this intercession is somehow taking place inside me!