Praying In The Spirit
Sooner or later, every
soul comes face to face with the
stark reality that life is nothing
without Christ. Need awakens desire,
and desire opens the way for prayer.
When the Holy Spirit exposes your
undone condition, He does not stop
there, but He also prompts you to
pray for help.
The Holy Spirit even
offers to help you pray. Zechariah
12:10 says, “I will our upon the
house of David … the spirit of
grace and of supplications: and they
shall look upon me whom they have
pierced.” The Holy Spirit
arouses in you an attitude of
supplication as He takes you into the
presence of the One who was pierced
for your sake on the cross.
God immediately
answered the prayer of the poor
publican, “God be merciful to me
a sinner.” Luke 18:13. Every
sinner can pray that prayer and know
that it will be answered. However,
too often we do not persist in
prayer, as we should. (Romans 12:12.)
Many church members pray as little as
non-church members. They fret and
stew and worry with their
shortcomings, but they do not pray
about them. When prompted to pray,
they stifle the inner urge. Thus, the
person who refuses to pray actually
quenches the Spirit. Prayerlessness
will eventually lead to spiritual
suicide. Only he who does not pray
will commit the “unpardonable
sin.” Every blessing received
should prompt us to praise God in
prayer. How can God give us greater
blessings if we do not appreciate
those already given?
Those who are not
sensitive enough to the Holy
Spirit’s promptings to pray can
never expect to be filled with the
Spirit. God pours “the spirit of
grace and of supplications” upon
us that we might pray. Without the
Spirit’s help, no one can pray
an acceptable prayer. Paul declared,
“I will pray with the spirit,
and I will pray with the
understanding also.” 1
Corinthians 14:15. And Jude spoke of
“praying in the Holy
Ghost.” (Jude 20.) God wants us
to pray our prayers, not just say our
prayers. We should be “praying
always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit.”
(Ephesians 6:18.) Praying in the
Spirit means putting heart and soul
into our requests-not forgetting, of
course, to ask in faith and according
to God’s will.
In prayer, it is our
privilege to know “the
fellowship of the Spirit,” and
“communion of the Holy
Ghost.” We may become better
acquainted with God by prayer than in
any other way, especially when prayer
takes the form of conversation. After
telling God about our joys and needs,
we should listen to what the Spirit
has to say to us.
Since the Holy Spirit
imparts the urge to pray, our
response should be to pray when so
impressed. One reason for the
spiritual poverty which abounds is
that there is so little asking. James
said, “Ye have not, because ye
ask not.” James 4:2. So, start
asking! However, asking is not
enough-we must also ask aright. James
pointed out, “Ye ask amiss, that
ye may consume it upon your
lust.” Verse 3. Our heavenly
Father seeks to draw us to His great
heart of love, to encourage us not to
go farther away from Him.
As we pray, the Spirit
may remind us of some neglected duty.
Christ admonished, “When ye
stand praying, forgive, if ye have
ought against any.” Mark 11:25.
Then, too, we should cultivate
pleasant home relations “that
your prayers be not hindered.”
(1 Peter 3:7.) Concerning those who
ask not in faith James declared,
“Let not that man think that he
shall receive anything of the
Lord.” (James 1:5-7.) From
Christ’s lips, we have this
promise: “What things so ever ye
desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have
them.” Mark 11:24.
How shall we pray?
“Always.” (Luke 18:1),
“abouring fervently”
(Colossians 4:12, “without
ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Our capacities to receive and
capabilities to use God’s
blessing will increase as we pray.
When we pray in Christ’s name
and for His sake, we will realize the
promise of John 15:7, “If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in
you, ye shall ask what ye will, and
it shall be done unto you.”
Abiding in Christ plays an important
role in the divine science of prayer.
In our prayers we
should state our needs simply, for
the Holy Spirit will translate our
desires into the language of heaven
and present them at the throne of
grace with an eloquence that no human
can know-yes, “with groanings
which cannot be uttered.”
(Romans 8:26.)
To whom should we
pray? “For through him [that is,
Jesus] we both have access by one
Spirit unto the Father.”
Ephesians 2:18. In other words, a
correct form of prayer is by the
Spirit through the Son unto the
Father.
What does the Bible
urge us to pray for? Christ said,
“ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and
it shall be opened unto you. For
every one that asketh receiveth; and
he that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened. If
a son shall ask bread of any of you
that is a father, will he give him a
stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he
for a fish give him a serpent? Or if
he shall ask an egg, will he offer
him a scorpion? If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children: how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask
him?” Luke 11:9-13.
In these few verses
Christ used the word ask or its
equivalent ten times. Asking is a
positive condition for receiving the
Holy Spirit. Those who have not
enough interest to pray for the
Spirit disqualify themselves to
receive Him. No one would appreciate
this wonderful gift if he received it
without asking for it. He would
imagine that he could use the Spirit
instead of letting the Spirit use
him. God has no reluctance to answer
our prayers for the Holy Spirit.
Christ’s death in a sense had
one goal in mind: that His disciples
might have the Holy Spirit in all His
fullness. Christ gives us a measure
of the Spirit to prompt us to pray
for more of the Spirit. He wants us
to desire a large infilling of the
Spirit. This gift of gifts
comprehends all other blessings.
It is not the quantity
of our prayers that Heaven respects;
nor our eloquence, no matter how
flowery our language, nor our
arguments, no matter how logically we
present our requests, nor the time we
spend in them. Rather it is our
yearning, our heart cry for
cleansing, and the sincerity that
prompts our prayer that Heaven
recognizes. God will never disappoint
the soul that in sincerity and faith
asks for the Holy Spirit.
He who prays with the
Spirit, in the Spirit, by the Spirit,
and for the Spirit is responding to
the promptings of the Spirit. God
answers such a prayer, for the Spirit
Himself will present that request
before the throne of God with
groanings that cannot be uttered. God
earnestly entreats us to pray, to
pray without ceasing, and to pray
especially for the out-pouring of the
Spirit.
