- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
‘Co-Praying with the Spirit of God.’
By Mrs.Jessie Penn-Lewis.
There is a tremendous power in prayer if we all knew how to use it. Romans 8 v26-27 shows us the part the Holy Spirit takes in it, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness”. In the Greek this refers to our physical and moral weakness, for “we do not know what we ought to pray for”, we cannot without His aid arrive at a knowledge of what to pray for, either for ourselves or for others. It is not enough that it should come to the mind that others need this and that, “but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express . . . in accordance with God’s will.”
Conditions for Prayer
The personal spiritual condition must be that of verses 12 to 17 before the prayer-life in the Spirit described in verses 26 and 27 can be fully known.
The first condition leading up to the prayer-life of 8 v26, is found in 8 v13. “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you MAKE TO DIE the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God”
No advance in the spiritual life can be realized without the foundation of the Cross. Before the Holy Spirit’s intercession prayer-life can be truly known, we must be shown by Him how to stand in the position of Christ’s death, and by His working let the death of Christ be applied in our experience.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature” (Gal. 5 v24). This means that as we accept the teaching of Romans 6 we ask the Spirit of God to apply the power of the death of Christ to all the activities of the natural life, so that the Holy Spirit may lead us into all the varied aspects of the life of a true child of God.
The second condition of the prayer-life in the Spirit is found in verse 15, where the apostle speaks of the “spirit of sonship” whereby we know God as “Father”, and the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children (v16). Let us ask ourselves faithfully as we read Romans 8 v12-17, are these conditions fulfilled in our lives?
Is our standing in Christ on the ground of Calvary and reckoning ourselves “crucified with Christ” a real fact to us? Do we permit the Holy Spirit to apply the power of the death of Christ, or do we shirk the Cross? The clear leading of the Spirit through the human spirit cannot be known if in any degree the lower life is allowed to have dominion. What is uppermost in us as children of God, spirit, soul or body? They that are “led by the Spirit”, they who have the Holy Spirit indwelling, leading, teaching, witnessing and giving the spirit of sonship, they are the ones who will know the life of the Spirit in that intercession of v26. Abiding in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit and knowing the Spirit, depends upon our standing upon the ground of the Cross every moment, so that whenever there is any manifestation of the “misdeeds” of the “body” we instantly count on the Holy Spirit to apply the death of the Cross to them, and in the will say “N0” to the lower life in all its varied workings.
A Hidden Leakage Hindering Prayer
Many Christians have a hidden hindrance which causes leakage of strength in the spiritual life. The Holy Spirit is leading, moving, teaching, working in them but there is something from below pulling them downwards, draining and dragging them every now and then to a lower sphere. They cannot know the intercession of the Spirit in the life of the spirit or His inspiration in prayer unless they know the power of the Spirit in daily life.
Moment by moment light from the Holy Spirit is needed upon any leakage in the spiritual life. If the life is faithfully brought under the continual power of the Cross of Christ, the Holy Spirit will then lead in the spirit without the intrusion of the things that come from below, things that intervene, bringing personal conflict, and hindering ministry. Then having the spirit of adoption, the spirit of sonship, the Holy Spirit will give the witness in the spirit of the child’s place, the child’s right and the child’s heart towards God. Such is the place of victory over sin, a place of victory in the power of Christ’s death.
We may now look at the prayer-life as given in v26. First of all we are powerless in prayer for lack of knowledge - “we do not know what we ought to pray for”. Next “the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” - the groaning-prayer of the Spirit is wordless. In contrast with “we do not know” which is mental, is the “that words cannot express” of the groaning Spirit which is wordless. Many words can be poured out in prayer, wonderful prayer sometimes, but without any of the genuine, wordless prayer of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s prayer in your spirit is often a ‘groaning’ without words when it cannot reach the mental consciousness for expression. But that wordless cry in your spirit is more powerful than the most wonderful outpouring of words in mental expression. Let us recognize that we never do and never can know how to pray as we ought, without the co-working of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to put into our spirits the spirit-cry to God.
The Groaning Cry of the Spirit
Can we tell the difference in our prayer-life? Is the prayer a stream that comes from the innermost depth of our being, a groan, a cry of the Spirit in the spirit? Sometimes it may reach the mind, but not always. Is it prayer in the mind first or is there the cry in the spirit saying, “Lord, teach me what to ask”? According to this Scripture the Holy Spirit knows what to ask and the Father understands the Spirit’s wordless prayer. “He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit.” We may ask for many things and none of them may be in the will of God, but if we follow the cry in the spirit then He intercedes for us according to the will of God. Do we want to be equipped for service? Do we recognize the need of Equipment for Prayer? We want the Holy Spirit to give us words to give the message to others, so why not in like manner recognize the need of the Holy Spirit to give us words to cry to God in prayer?
The first need is to discover that we CANNOT pray as we ought, and the next is to learn how to depend upon the Holy Spirit for prayers to pray in the spirit, as much as depend upon Him for power in service. David said, “I cried to the Lord and He heard”, and we shall find when there comes the wordless cry of the Spirit within that we shall have what we ask.
We must trust the Lord definitely to teach us what to ask and how to pray. The Spirit, in your spirit, is always crying these wordless prayers until there comes power in some measure to express them.
After the groaning intercession of the Spirit in v26, we read of the intercession of Christ in v34, “Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us.” In Hebrews 4 v15 we read, “For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness (Greek - moral and physical weaknesses), but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are”. He is not there interceding as One who does not understand. He is sympathetic because He was “tempted in every way, just as we are”. He received His training as an Intercessor while on earth, and in heaven He is using the results of His training. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save him from death, and he was heard” (Heb. 5 v7).
He went through all and lived through all, with “loud cries and tears”. He knows what it means to be on earth, and this is why He is so quickly sympathetic as our heavenly Intercessor, “because He always lives to intercede for us” (Heb. 7 v25). “You have come . . . to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood” (Heb. 12 v24). The Holy Spirit within inspires the cry in our spirit, the Heavenly Intercessor seated on the Throne makes intercession in heaven.
When the cry of the Spirit is in the heart then we know that the Master hears that cry, for “He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit”. He is searching for the mind of the Spirit in our spirits and He is keeping the way open that these prayers reach the throne. Now we understand why Christ is praying for the Church. If He were not praying for it, the Church would be swallowed up by the powers of hell.
If the Church of Christ could be brought to know that cry, inspired by the Holy Spirit, how rapidly the Body of Christ would be delivered from the world, the flesh and the devil. The Intercessor in heaven calls into fellowship with Himself all God’s children on earth to share with Him in His work of prayer. He keeps the way open for us as we join Him in His prayers and we keep the way open for others. He is praying there, then by His Spirit the prayer comes to us and again through us to reach others. Such is the wonderful life of prayer.
From “Communion with God”.