Praying in the Spirit

Introduction:

This morning we are continuing our series on Life in the Spirit and we want to look at the subject of prayer which I believe is the key that unlocks the door to living by the power of God’s Spirit. Anyone who is serious about living abundantly and authentically as a Christian has to take the discipline of prayer seriously. Much is said about the apostle Paul as a theologian or as a missionary but we tend to overlook the very reason how he was transformed into the most influential Christian in history. Before anything else, even before writing this letter to the Romans, I believe Paul was a man of deep prayer and there was this burning desire to see the church connected to the presence of the living God through constant prayer. This morning, we want to examine how we can go beyond prayer as a religious duty and learn how to pray in the Spirit.

Romans 8:26–30 ESV

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans

As we go through this passage, we are going to try to answer two basic questions regarding prayer:

Why is it so difficult to pray?

What is the solution?

2. What is the solution?

2. What is the solution?

If you remember from the end of last week’s message, we looked at how the Holy Spirit comforts us during our times of suffering by prompting our spirit to cry out to God as our Abba Father. Without this work of the Spirit deep in our hearts, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to turn to God and trust Him completely as Abba especially during times of pain and suffering. You might acknowledge his sovereignty, even believe in God’s power to deliver you but you can still lack the child-like faith to trust him with your life. This is something that the Holy Spirit does within us through deep times of prayer. So in Paul’s flow of thought, introduces the more general topic of the Holy Spirit’s activity in our prayer lives. And we can see this connection by the way that he starts off this particular section where he writes, likewise or in the same manner, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. But what is this weakness that Paul is alluding to? It is something that we can all identify with: we don’t know what to pray for as we ought.

Anyone who has really given an honest effort to prayer understands that this a problem. You may have never considered it a weakness in your life or a flaw in your spirituality but it is. I think most of us can relate to how difficult it is to pray for any length of time and it’s not because you don’t know how to pray necessarily, it’s usually because you don’t know what to pray for and then you run out of things to say to God. I’m sure that most of us have had an experience of being in a prayer meeting or even praying on your own and you swear that 30 minutes have gone by and you look at your watch and it’s only been 5 and you’re wondering when is this going to end. From that point on, prayer becomes like pulling teeth and it doesn’t seem very effective, feels like a waste of time and eventually it just becomes a religious habit, something that you do before you eat, or maybe Sunday morning because the pastor makes you do it, but it never becomes something enjoyable, life giving, something that becomes one of the major priorities of your life.

In this message, we want to look at a subject that is closely related which is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and prayer.

You’ll notice that Paul doesn’t say that we don’t know how to pray because the assumption is that most of us do. Prayer is one of those universal things that people of all cultures do. Here in the United States according to the latest Pew Research, 55% of Americans say that they pray daily, another 21% say they pray weekly or monthly. Even among the religiously unaffiliated, those who don’t go to church or have a strong religious preference, 20% still say that they pray daily. So it is isn’t a matter of not knowing how to pray, the greater issue is not knowing what to pray for as we ought to. And if this is you this morning and I am assuming that this is the majority of us, then you are in great company because you join the likes of the apostle Paul and Jesus. (Let me encourage you here for a moment before bringing on the guilt.) Not knowing what to pray for is a human condition that everybody suffers through even the greatest of spiritual giants. Let’s take a look at two examples from the lives of both Paul and Jesus.

You’ll notice that Paul doesn’t say that we don’t know how to pray because

You’ll notice that Paul doesn’t say that we don’t know how to pray because

2 Corinthians 12:7–9 ESV

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:7–8 ESV

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

2 Corinthians 12:

John 12:27–28 ESV

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

John 12:27–29 ESV

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

John 12:27 ESV

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

John 12:27–28 ESV

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

jOhn

John 12:27-28

John

These two examples highlight the primary reason why we don’t know what to pray for and then leads us to the solution. First of all, the reason why we don’t know what to pray for is that we are accustomed to praying only for our physical and earthly needs because understandably this is what immediately concerns us. Paul prays that God would heal whatever thorn is in his flesh. This is probably some sort of sickness or possibly an on-going area of sin his life. Three times, he prays to be healed but there is no answer. We can all relate to this in one form or another. God, give me a job. No answer. God, heal my family. No answer. God, get rid of Donald Trump. No answer. God, bring world peace. No answer. I am not saying that this is not a valid way of praying but hopefully you can see why you don’t like to pray, why your prayer lives feel ineffective, and why prayer is not a priority. If you constantly feel like God is stonewalling you and not listening to your requests, of course you are going to get discouraged. After all you are only human.

The problems that Paul has is understandable but what is surprising is that even Jesus wrestles with what He should say to the Father. Like any of us, his physical needs, the need to avoid the suffering of the cross is foremost on his mind and so Jesus too struggles with the content of his prayers. I don’t know about you, it is such an encouragement to see that Jesus shares my humanity and wrestles with the same things that I struggle with before God. However unlike me, Jesus and to a lesser degree Paul understands that the purpose of prayer isn’t mainly to fulfill my earthy needs and that God doesn’t simply exist to answer a list a prayer requests that I might have. Jesus says as much in - Don’t be like the Gentiles, who think they will be heard because of their many words, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t ask but if this is all that your prayer lives are about, if you only come to him when you have a physical need, you will be severely limited in your growth as a Christian.

So if the main purpose of prayer isn’t to just meet our earthly needs, what is the purpose? Prayer is designed to meet our largely unseen spiritual needs and our greatest spiritual need is to have a relationship with God, to hear His voice, and to know his will. For both Jesus and Paul, the prayers for their earthly needs was unanswered but what they really needed and the prayer that they could not verbalize, the prayer that was stuck in their spirit was heard by God and they were given a clear answer. As New Testament believers, this bring us to the solution to our difficulties and that is the intercession of the Holy Spirit in our prayer lives. Words, either the lack of them or the wrong content, pose a great problem in prayer. This is the weakness that all of humanity shares but the greatness of God’s grace is this: he takes our weakness and displays his power through it. If the power of prayer is limited by our words and our inability to verbalize our true spiritual needs, God provides a way to bypass that barrier by giving us the Holy Spirit who now intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

I love what the old pastor Martyn Lloyd Jones had to say about this glaring weakness that we all have in our prayer lives. This difficulty in prayer can be a source of great guilt in believers. How can I call myself a good Christian if I don’t pray? What kind of believer doesn’t enjoy connecting to God? What kind of person lies that they will pray for someone when they know that they will not follow through? Here is the thing, we can continue down this road of futility in our prayer lives, pretending that we pray, fooling ourselves that it is a priority or we can choose to take this weakness, and allow God to display his strength through it. This is how Martyn Lloyd Jones phrases it:

…this kind of infirmity which renders us incapable of knowing exactly what we should pray for as we ought, far from proving that we are not God’s children, can indeed, if we but listen to the apostolic teaching, lead us to a most wonderful proof of the fact that we are God’s children.

(In any relationship, you are going to have difficulties in communication. It’s kind of like that awkward conversation that you might have with your own earthly father. You talk for about 5 minutes and you don’t have anything left to say. That awkward silence isn’t a proof that you are not related, it's proof that you do have a relationship but it is one that you need to work on.)

So how can we work on this relationship with God? First and foremost, we need to understand that God has graciously given us the Holy Spirit to help us as we seek the Lord in prayer. You’ll notice that Paul doesn’t say that the Spirit will do all of the praying for you, that you don’t have to do anything in this process. No, what the first verse says is that the Spirit will come alongside you and give you the help that you need. God is like a Father who is trying to teach his child how to speak a language that will bring them together but at the same he knows exactly what you need and what you are trying to say as his Spirit groans within you with inexpressible words.

Generally, when you hear a message on prayer, the speaker will give you some helpful insights on how to cultivate a healthy prayer life. They will give you a list of things that you need to work on. So let me remind you of some of those helpful tips.

Set aside time daily to pray. If you don’t, you won’t.

Pray in accordance to the Word of God.

Learn to pray with people. This brings accountability.

Pray from the inside out. Meaning pray about yourself, then your family, friends, the church, the city, and then the world.

These are all great suggestions but if we end here, if you are anything like me and you are undisciplined in your prayer life, I am ultimately setting you up for failure. All of these tips are based on you or some other person helping you. The apostle Paul is offering to us help that goes far beyond just helping ourselves. He is offering to us the assistance of the very Spirit of God. Unfortunately, we don’t have too much time to dive into this topic this week but I do want to set things up for next Sunday’s and leave you on a theological cliff hanger.

The Greek word that is translated as ‘help’ in your English bibles is actually a far more complex word than the simple English word that we see in the ESV (synantilambanomai). This word literally means to be taken up together and so the literal translations of the Greek would be the Spirit takes us up together with him in our weakness. This may not seem like this makes much of a difference but theologically it does. The German theologian, Gerhard Delling, describes the impact of this word on our understanding of this verse in this way:

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament ἀντιλαμβάνομαι, ἀντίλημψις, συναντιλαμβάνομαι

Here the pneuma is not thought of as tertia persona but as having become one with man. It has entered into union with the human καρδία and there fashions prayers which cannot be grasped by the human understanding and are not immediately adequate before God, but must first be searched out by Him. This pneumatic prayer is a charismatic dealing with God like speaking with tongues, whether with or without the corresponding forms (v. 26, στεναγμοῖς ἀλαλήτοις).

Many New Testament scholars including Gordon Fee, who is considered one of the foremost scholars, agree that this is the proper understanding of . And what they are saying is not that everyone needs to pray in tongues, and we’ll cover that next week, but if you don’t pray in tongues, you better have a corresponding or analagous form of prayer that brings in the activity and the help of the Spirit of God. But its not only a bunch of scholars in the ivory towers that confirm this, the apostle Paul, who is defined by his prayer life more than anything else, tells us this the same thing in Ephesians.

Ephesians 6:18 ESV

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Conclusion

If there is an area of weakness in the Western church, it is the fact that we don’t pray enough both privately and corporately and then we wonder why upwards of 70% of Christians don’t feel like they are growing spiritually. The least attended meeting in most churches is the mid-week prayer service and sadly, I’ve seen many churches simply do away with these meetings or hold them once a quarter but as a matter of principle, I don’t feel like God will permit me to stop until their are pockets of people praying together organically throughout this city.