The Holy Spirit’s Work . . .
I realize I am always ragging on you . . . oops, I mean “discussing” your prayer-life, like how we should be praying and how we need to pray, but something I occasionally gloss over is how the Holy Spirit was actually given to lead us into a life of prayer. Paul wrote to the church in Rome stating, “In many ways we are weak, but the Spirit is here to help us. For example, when we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit prays for us in ways that cannot be put into words” (Romans 8:26).
I want you to think about what Paul was saying here. He was actually explaining the role the Holy Spirit plays in our prayer life. Sometimes we get so confused about prayer and make it seem so complicated. Go into any Christian bookstore and you sill find all kinds of books on the subject, filled with detailed formulas on how to pray.
I have had believers asking me all kinds of questions about prayer, like when you are praying, when does it become intercession? (As if it really makes a difference). Then, as a follow up, they ask whether intercession is measured by how fervent we pray, how loud we are, or how much time we spend in prayer? How do we pray according to God’s will? How do we know if we are praying according to His will?
And of course they want to know how we go about praying? Do we have to be on our knees? Do we have to raise our hands? Do we have to speak in “Elizabethan English?” Do those “mental” prayers count? What exactly do we pray for?
I’ll tell you what, with all of that confusion with praying, no wonder most Christians don’t have a prayer life! It can be so overwhelming that it is much easier to simply avoid praying.
I don’t believe there has been a time when the prayers of God’s people were more needed than now. We live in a world that is not going mad–it is already nuts. All around the world it is getting worse. Christian are beging put under the thumb of evil men and churches are being burned to the ground! The Church is supposed to be a source of peace, sanctuaries, where people turn to as a source of comfort.
Certainly the people we work with, or in our neighborhood are searching for an answer. But they look in self-help books, through counselors, drugs, alcohol, dead religions, political parties and causes, and even in helping the poor just to find meaning and peace in their lives. Well I said people we work with and our neighbors are doing all that, but even born-again believers search everywhere but to their Father.
Scriptures tell us, “The world cannot accept Christ because it doesn’t see or know him. But you know him, because he lives with you and will be in you” (see John 14:17).
I hold that one of our greatest concerns should be that we develop (and maintain) an active prayer life. Because one of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to guide us in our prayers, when we neglect our times of prayer we are grieving the Him. Oh? Yes, it is possible for us to grieve the Holy Spirit. Paul writes as much when he says, “Never grieve the Holy Spirit. He is, remember, the personal pledge of your eventual full redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
The Holy Spirit shares our Lord’s grief when His people do not believe Him and do not spend time in prayer. Right now I can think of several powerful ways the Holy Spirit helps in our prayers. For instance He will bring us into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Since He lives in us, He will help us in our prayers.
Andrew Murray wrote how he viewed the presence of the Holy Spirit as being a gift from the Father so that His children could reproduce all of the things He brought to us through His Spirit. He wrote,
The Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of the Father; He has the Spirit of the Son. So He will bring the Son—Jesus Christ—to us. Theologian James A. Stewart said, “The Holy Spirit forms the indwelling Christ in our hearts and minds.” So if you remember Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians (Ephesians 3:14-21) this is exactly what he prayed for them—that God would grant them, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith.
The reason why our Father wants us to have His Spirit (and why we need that Spirit to help us in prayer), is because Jesus was and is our model for prayer. When He walked this earth He demonstrated perfectly how to pray. So our Father longs for us to have that same spiri—the spirit of Sonship, which is a spirit of liberty, devotion, and obedience. I can’t think of a better aid we could have in prayer than His Spirit crying out in prayer!
He gives us access to our Father and makes our prayers acceptable to Him. Because our Father has given us His Spirit, it has become our evidence that we are His children. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God.” If we know we are His children, then we know that we have been justified through our Lord Jesus Christ; and thus we have peace with God (Romans 5:1). Because of the work that has been done in our hearts, the Holy Spirit is able to bring to us (and helps us feel) a new freedom, a boldness, a confidence in our spirit to approach our Father’s throne (Romabs 5:2; Ephesians 2:18; 3:12; Hebrews 4:16). But that’s not all, as we already saw, He also helps us pray and make our prayers acceptable to Him. How does He do that? By His own intercession as He pleads with the Father for us (Romans 8:26, 27).
Hey! It finally hit me that our prayers would never have a chance of reaching our God or be effective without the Holy Spirit’s intercession. It is just that important! Didn’t we already see that He makes our prayers acceptable to our Father. In the same way Jesus is interceding for us in heaven to maintain our redemption, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us on earth to make our prayers acceptable according to that redemption. The Holy Spirit is always interceding for us according to God’s will. Why? So we will be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).
Look, I could go on and on on this, but without the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives we are a mess. We cannot continue to live without Him. I think we need to acknowledge His work and His presence in our lives. We also need to show our appreciation for His work and presence!
Nickolas
I want you to think about what Paul was saying here. He was actually explaining the role the Holy Spirit plays in our prayer life. Sometimes we get so confused about prayer and make it seem so complicated. Go into any Christian bookstore and you sill find all kinds of books on the subject, filled with detailed formulas on how to pray.
I have had believers asking me all kinds of questions about prayer, like when you are praying, when does it become intercession? (As if it really makes a difference). Then, as a follow up, they ask whether intercession is measured by how fervent we pray, how loud we are, or how much time we spend in prayer? How do we pray according to God’s will? How do we know if we are praying according to His will?
And of course they want to know how we go about praying? Do we have to be on our knees? Do we have to raise our hands? Do we have to speak in “Elizabethan English?” Do those “mental” prayers count? What exactly do we pray for?
I’ll tell you what, with all of that confusion with praying, no wonder most Christians don’t have a prayer life! It can be so overwhelming that it is much easier to simply avoid praying.
I don’t believe there has been a time when the prayers of God’s people were more needed than now. We live in a world that is not going mad–it is already nuts. All around the world it is getting worse. Christian are beging put under the thumb of evil men and churches are being burned to the ground! The Church is supposed to be a source of peace, sanctuaries, where people turn to as a source of comfort.
Certainly the people we work with, or in our neighborhood are searching for an answer. But they look in self-help books, through counselors, drugs, alcohol, dead religions, political parties and causes, and even in helping the poor just to find meaning and peace in their lives. Well I said people we work with and our neighbors are doing all that, but even born-again believers search everywhere but to their Father.
Scriptures tell us, “The world cannot accept Christ because it doesn’t see or know him. But you know him, because he lives with you and will be in you” (see John 14:17).
I hold that one of our greatest concerns should be that we develop (and maintain) an active prayer life. Because one of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to guide us in our prayers, when we neglect our times of prayer we are grieving the Him. Oh? Yes, it is possible for us to grieve the Holy Spirit. Paul writes as much when he says, “Never grieve the Holy Spirit. He is, remember, the personal pledge of your eventual full redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
The Holy Spirit shares our Lord’s grief when His people do not believe Him and do not spend time in prayer. Right now I can think of several powerful ways the Holy Spirit helps in our prayers. For instance He will bring us into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Since He lives in us, He will help us in our prayers.
Andrew Murray wrote how he viewed the presence of the Holy Spirit as being a gift from the Father so that His children could reproduce all of the things He brought to us through His Spirit. He wrote,
The best gift a good and wise earthly father can bestow on a child is his own spirit. This is the object of a father in education—to reproduce in his child his own disposition and character. If the child is to know and understand his father, if he is to enter into all his will and plans, if he is to have his highest joy in the father and the father in him, he must be of one mind and spirit with him. It is impossible to conceive of God bestowing any higher gift on His child than His own Spirit. God is what He is through His Spirit; the Spirit is the very life of God. Just think what it means for God to give His own Spirit to His child on earth.I think Murray hits it right on the head! This of course means that we will gain the same attitude of prayer that He has, the same burden of prayer, the same urgency to pray. It means that He will show us His mind and how He views a particular situation, and that He will give us an understanding of our salvation—our justification and glorification and all His wonderful mercies toward us (read Romans 12:1; I Corinthians 2:10-12). So when the Holy Spirit shows us our Father’s heart, we are able to pray according to His will and according to His loving heart.
The Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of the Father; He has the Spirit of the Son. So He will bring the Son—Jesus Christ—to us. Theologian James A. Stewart said, “The Holy Spirit forms the indwelling Christ in our hearts and minds.” So if you remember Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians (Ephesians 3:14-21) this is exactly what he prayed for them—that God would grant them, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith.
The reason why our Father wants us to have His Spirit (and why we need that Spirit to help us in prayer), is because Jesus was and is our model for prayer. When He walked this earth He demonstrated perfectly how to pray. So our Father longs for us to have that same spiri—the spirit of Sonship, which is a spirit of liberty, devotion, and obedience. I can’t think of a better aid we could have in prayer than His Spirit crying out in prayer!
He gives us access to our Father and makes our prayers acceptable to Him. Because our Father has given us His Spirit, it has become our evidence that we are His children. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God.” If we know we are His children, then we know that we have been justified through our Lord Jesus Christ; and thus we have peace with God (Romans 5:1). Because of the work that has been done in our hearts, the Holy Spirit is able to bring to us (and helps us feel) a new freedom, a boldness, a confidence in our spirit to approach our Father’s throne (Romabs 5:2; Ephesians 2:18; 3:12; Hebrews 4:16). But that’s not all, as we already saw, He also helps us pray and make our prayers acceptable to Him. How does He do that? By His own intercession as He pleads with the Father for us (Romans 8:26, 27).
Hey! It finally hit me that our prayers would never have a chance of reaching our God or be effective without the Holy Spirit’s intercession. It is just that important! Didn’t we already see that He makes our prayers acceptable to our Father. In the same way Jesus is interceding for us in heaven to maintain our redemption, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us on earth to make our prayers acceptable according to that redemption. The Holy Spirit is always interceding for us according to God’s will. Why? So we will be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).
Look, I could go on and on on this, but without the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives we are a mess. We cannot continue to live without Him. I think we need to acknowledge His work and His presence in our lives. We also need to show our appreciation for His work and presence!
Nickolas
(I send out messages like this each morning in emails, and if you are interested in receiving them, send me your email address and I will add you to the list)
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