Prayer designed by the Spirit

Yesterday we looked at the Holy Spirit's fervor in praying on believers' behalf when we don't know how to pray.

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for , but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words can not express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit; because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance to God's will".

The word "weakness" does not necessarily refer to a certain weakness we may be experiencing, but the overall weakness of our humanness. We have a limited understanding and weak physical strength...just as the disciples when Jesus asked them to stay and pray the night He would be arrested, they fell asleep because of their physical weakness. Matt 26:36-43. But the Holy Spirit is not limited by anything...He knows the will of God because He is God...part of the Trinity.
Because of our imperfect perspectives, finite minds, human frailties we need the Holy Spirit who is continually praying on our behalf with God's perfect will as the end result. He molds the content of our prayers to fit the purposes of God.

As Mr. Chapell writes: "We know that God's will is to make us more Christlike (1 Thess 4:3) but apart from this goal we can rarely (if ever) know God's desires precisely. Were we with Joseph, we would have prayed for his rescue from his brothers plot to sell him into slavery...Were we at the cross, we would have cried for God to send His angels to the rescue. " When believers pray, we pray with confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to mold our prayers in full accordance to God's will. We don't need to pretend that we have everything figured out. We have to acknowledge our dependency on the wisdom of God.

Yet, despite our limited vision, Spirit-filled prayer is a powerful force. Spirit-filled, God exalting prayer changes life. We stand amazed as we look back and we see the very hand of God upon us and praise His handy-work. Spirit-filled, God exalting prayer brings God into focus. Had it gone exactly as we had thought, we would take the credit and dim God's glory. Spirit-filled, God exalting prayer brings into our minds God Himself. We begin to see things with that eternal perspective.

Mr Chapell writes: "God knows that when our heart beats in rhythm with His, His greatest joys are ours. We are never richer than when we are emptied of earthly ambitions and fulfilled by Christ's desire. We are never more satisfied than when we are content with His plan for our lives. We know no greater peace than when we are confident His love hedges our lives so that nothing enters except that which makes us more like the Son whom the heavenly Father cherishes. In short when we have no greater desire than for Jesus to be glorified in us, He grants the desires of our heart."

The last thing the spirit does through prayers is change our affections. The world is constantly wooing us away from godly things. The world challenges our affection as tries to get us to exchange the eternal for the temporal. Even this morning as I was praying, I asked forgiveness for that. When anything displaces God's exalted view that becomes an idol. Idols are not those statues we think of when we study history. Even then, the idols represented a desire, emotion or human characteristic that was raised to a level of a god. A good barometer of how idols have crept into our days is to ask ourselves...did I have a quality prayer/study time with God yesterday? If not, then as we look at our day all those things that kept us away were idols. We thought them more valuable, than time with God. (Yikes...that stings!) Sleep, a tv show, phone conversation, laundry even time with the kids. Part of that is also our human weakness, we spoke of earlier.

Did you know that we can pray in the Holy Spirit, and can ask Him to increase our love for God and His ways? "Thus when we pray in the Spirit, we ask Him to stir-up within us such affection for God that the affections of the world lose their grasp on our heart."
The Holy Spirit is powerful and with His fervor, His intercession and His changing our affections, our prayers are not only God pleasing but fulfill God's greatest desire for us. And His greatest desire for us is to love Him with all our heart, mind and soul.

Do we need to ask the Holy Spirit to stir-up in us a greater affection for God? If we would ask for that, I believe, that would be the start of a changed and Spirit-filled life. More of Him and less of me!

Tomorrow a look at Eph 3:14-19. How can we gain a greater view of God? It is by seeing how "wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ"

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Naples Girls:
Meet next Thursday for Book Club