PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

We spend more time talking about prayer to each other, than we do talking to God in prayer. I was listening to a message from the late Dr. Adrian Rogers that stimulated my thinking as to the nature of this dilemma.

Knowing about prayer, confession that we need to pray, but still our struggle to actually pray—and to pray effectively is a sad reality, despite the fact that:

PRAYER IS OUR GREATEST PRIVILEGE. Imagine—the God of the universe invites weak humans to bring their needs to Him and to do so with courage and confidence. PRAYER IS OUR GREATEST PRIORITY. There are many things we can do after we pray, but nothing until we pray. PRAYER IS OUR GREATEST POWER. Prayer can do all that God can do, for it taps into Omnipotence. But, the sad fact is that PRAYER IS OUR GREATEST POVERTY. Studies have shown that the typical church member spends only a few minutes a week in prayer.

There are no excuses we can offer for this spiritual bankruptcy, yet there are several reasons for it:

1) Indifference. My old flesh has no interest in the things of God. It rebels against the thought of dependence on God.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
(Rom.7:18-21).

2) Interference. It has been said that, “Satan trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees,” so he will fight you to keep you from praying. When we pray we have entered into the arena of spiritual warfare.

22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
(Rom.7:22-23).

3) Ignorance. We don’t know how to pray and what to pray about. Though we know need to pray, we don’t know where to begin. “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom.7:24).

Even when we pray we often pray cross-purposes to God’s will or have prayers that arise out of our carnal desires that rise no higher than the ceiling. The solution? Paul makes this pivotal point at the end of fleshly frustration in trying to act “spiritual” in Rom.7:25, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” He then moves into the discussion of the Spirit-filled life in Romans 8. This is true spirituality, and at the very core of it is the reliance on the Holy Spirit that comes with prayer. Scripture enjoins us to pray “in the Spirit.” In Jude and in Ephesians and here in Romans 8, Paul calls for Spirit-inspired praying. This week we will examine in detail what that means. Don’t miss one lesson!