|
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 Spirits
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 Spirits 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 Gods 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
Christs 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
Gods blessing will increase as we pray.
When we pray in Christs 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. Christs
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.
|