How Do We Pray in the Spirit?
Chapters
0:0 Introduction0:42 Prayer in the Spirit
2:59 Power of the Spirit
5:58 Praying in the Spirit
00:00:00.000 | Well, how do we pray in the Spirit?
00:00:08.400 | And can we accidentally pray out of the Spirit?
00:00:11.960 | That's a good question from a listener to the podcast named Mary.
00:00:15.080 | Pastor John, she writes, "Thank you for your lab study through Ephesians."
00:00:18.880 | Let's look at the book videos.
00:00:19.880 | "It has been wonderfully fruitful in my life.
00:00:22.280 | Keep up the great work.
00:00:24.200 | My question is whether you can teach me to pray in the Spirit.
00:00:28.120 | Paul and Jude call us to this.
00:00:30.800 | So what does this look like?
00:00:32.640 | And can you distinguish what it looks like to pray in the Spirit from what it would mean
00:00:37.560 | to pray out of the Spirit?"
00:00:39.880 | Pastor John, what would you say to Mary?
00:00:42.520 | Let's begin by reminding ourselves that prayer is not the only thing that Christians are
00:00:49.300 | called upon to do in the Spirit or by the Spirit.
00:00:54.640 | And just by the way, that phrase "en pneumati" in the Bible, "in the Spirit," is sometimes
00:01:01.040 | translated "by the Spirit," sometimes "in the Spirit."
00:01:03.680 | I don't think Paul in his mind would make that distinction.
00:01:07.800 | For example, Galatians 5:16, "Walk in the Spirit."
00:01:13.200 | Romans 8:13, "Put to death the deeds of the body in the Spirit."
00:01:18.240 | 1 Corinthians 12:3, "Confess Jesus as Lord in the Spirit."
00:01:23.560 | Philippians 3:3, "Worship in the Spirit."
00:01:27.120 | 1 Corinthians 14:16, "Give thanks in the Spirit."
00:01:31.360 | Galatians 6:1, "Restore a wayward brother in the Spirit."
00:01:36.600 | So the command in Jude 1:20, "Pray in the Holy Spirit," and it's paralleled in Ephesians 6:18,
00:01:45.360 | "Take the sword of the Spirit," which is the Word of God praying at all times in the Spirit.
00:01:51.840 | These two commands, to pray in the Spirit, are not unique.
00:01:55.840 | They're part of the whole Christian life, to be lived in the Spirit.
00:02:02.000 | Everything we do is to be done in or by the Spirit.
00:02:07.040 | I don't think praying in the Spirit refers, by the way, to praying in tongues, in a heavenly language.
00:02:17.200 | That's what some people think.
00:02:18.200 | I mention it here, and the reason I don't think that is because Ephesians 6:18 says,
00:02:24.840 | "Praying at all times in the Spirit."
00:02:29.480 | And it doesn't mean that you should be praying in tongues all the time.
00:02:33.440 | This is all of our praying.
00:02:35.680 | All of our praying is to be in the Spirit, not just one part of our praying, say, praying in tongues.
00:02:44.040 | So here's my suggestion for what praying in the Spirit means.
00:02:50.080 | It means that our prayers are moved and guided by the Holy Spirit.
00:02:59.300 | That is, we are being prompted to pray by the Spirit.
00:03:04.840 | He's awakening it and moving it.
00:03:07.720 | And the things that we pray for are being shaped and determined by the Spirit.
00:03:16.180 | So it's His power that carries the prayer, and it's His leading that guides the prayer.
00:03:24.360 | Now let me point to some passages where I get that idea.
00:03:27.240 | In Romans 8:26, Paul says, "The Spirit helps our weakness because we don't know how to
00:03:34.440 | pray as we should.
00:03:37.060 | But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."
00:03:42.080 | Now I take that to mean that in some cases, our burdens are so great that we can't find words,
00:03:52.400 | appropriate words, but we groan toward God.
00:03:57.820 | Our groanings are toward God, and that groaning of our Spirit-filled heart is the very groaning
00:04:06.600 | of the Spirit, which God Himself understands.
00:04:11.700 | So we are being helped by the Spirit to pray.
00:04:16.700 | And I think we can generalize from that statement and say, "That's what the Spirit does regularly."
00:04:23.740 | Not just when we are at a loss for words.
00:04:26.460 | He is the great helper of our prayers.
00:04:30.380 | He prompts, He enables, He empowers us in prayer.
00:04:35.860 | And then I think of Romans 8:15, where Paul says, "You have received the Spirit of adoption
00:04:44.340 | as sons, by which we cry," that is, we pray, "Abba, Father."
00:04:53.980 | The Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
00:04:58.320 | In other words, the Spirit works in our heart to awaken this authentic cry, this authentic prayer,
00:05:07.640 | "Father, Father."
00:05:10.760 | Then everything that we say in that Spirit, in faith that He's our Father, follows as
00:05:17.840 | a work of the Spirit.
00:05:19.560 | I love that text, that my cry to God as my Father is a work of the Spirit.
00:05:24.840 | I wouldn't be crying as a dependent, helpless child towards God as my Father if the Spirit
00:05:30.160 | weren't at work in my life.
00:05:31.160 | That's a beautiful thing.
00:05:33.240 | That's what the witness of the Holy Spirit is.
00:05:35.960 | And then I add to the prompting and the awakening and sustaining and empowering, all those words
00:05:42.520 | for our prayer, I add to that the guiding us to pray as we ought.
00:05:49.040 | James 4:3 says, "When you ask, you don't receive, because you ask wrongly, with wrong
00:05:59.040 | motives, that you may spend it on your passions."
00:06:03.600 | Now that would be an example of failing to pray in the Spirit, because the Spirit would
00:06:10.760 | never guide you to pray with wrong motives.
00:06:14.520 | That's not what He does.
00:06:15.520 | He's a Holy Spirit.
00:06:17.860 | One of the great functions of the Spirit in prayer is to guard us from praying with bad
00:06:25.200 | motives and for wrong things.
00:06:29.400 | Jesus taught us to put "Hallowed be your name" at the front, the priority of our prayers.
00:06:39.760 | That's what the Holy Spirit is doing repeatedly.
00:06:42.820 | He is shaping our prayers with right motives, right priorities, with a passion for God's
00:06:49.440 | supremacy.
00:06:51.300 | So my understanding of praying in the Spirit is that our prayers are moved and guided by
00:07:00.840 | the Spirit.
00:07:02.200 | That we are praying and what we are praying are owing to the Holy Spirit.
00:07:09.480 | So the question is, how do you do that?
00:07:12.840 | Which is really part of the larger question of how do you do anything in the Christian
00:07:17.240 | life so that it can be said, "Not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
00:07:22.880 | Not I, but the power of the Holy Spirit enabling me."
00:07:26.280 | Or Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ.
00:07:29.320 | It is no longer I who live, but Christ by the Spirit who lives in me and the life I
00:07:38.460 | now live in the flesh.
00:07:39.560 | I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."
00:07:44.320 | So the whole Christian life, including prayer, is a great miracle and mystery.
00:07:51.040 | We act the miracle, but the Spirit creates and sustains and guides the miracle.
00:07:59.200 | And I think that verse, Galatians 2:20, contains the secret of how it's done.
00:08:04.340 | On the one hand, it says, "I don't live, Christ lives in me," or "the Spirit is alive
00:08:10.440 | and moving in me."
00:08:12.500 | Then he turns right around and says, "The life I do live, I live by faith in Christ,"
00:08:19.920 | or I would say, "in the working of the Holy Spirit through the work of Christ."
00:08:24.460 | So my conclusion from that is the way the Spirit of Christ lives through Paul's life
00:08:32.840 | is faith in Christ to do just that.
00:08:38.200 | And here's a confirmation that we're on the right track there when we interpret Galatians
00:08:42.760 | 2:20 that way.
00:08:44.460 | In Galatians 3:5, Paul says, "Does he who supplies the Spirit to you," so think supplying
00:08:52.040 | the Spirit for your prayers, "Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles
00:08:57.520 | among you do so by works of the law, no, or by hearing with faith, yes?"
00:09:04.240 | In other words, the Spirit of God is supplied to us so we can pray in the Spirit.
00:09:13.720 | And Paul says that that supply of the Spirit comes by the hearing with faith.
00:09:20.180 | We hear a promise, "I'll help you, I'll strengthen you, I'll hold you up in prayer with my Holy
00:09:26.620 | Spirit," and we believe it.
00:09:29.340 | We believe it.
00:09:30.900 | And by that faith, the Spirit moves to create and sustain and guide our praying.
00:09:38.560 | So my answer to the question is that praying in the flesh would be praying without faith
00:09:47.200 | in the promise that the Holy Spirit will prompt and guide our prayers.
00:09:52.340 | And praying in the Spirit means we trust the promise of God's help by the Spirit so that
00:10:00.580 | through this faith, the Holy Spirit is supplied and our prayers are moved and guided by the
00:10:09.940 | Spirit.
00:10:10.940 | What a gift.
00:10:11.940 | A gift indeed that makes it possible for us to act the miracle.
00:10:16.300 | Love that phrase.
00:10:17.300 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:18.380 | And Mary, thanks for the question.
00:10:19.380 | Thanks for joining us today.
00:10:20.820 | You can ask a question of your own.
00:10:22.380 | You can search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:10:26.780 | Well, next time we're going to look at a theological debate and see why controversy is essential.
00:10:38.100 | And we will see how theological controversy can be deadly, too.
00:10:42.420 | It's as deadly as it is necessary.
00:10:45.860 | Important word to be heeded.
00:10:47.060 | Next time, I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:10:48.300 | We'll see you back here on Wednesday.
00:10:50.740 | God bless.
00:10:51.180 | [END]
00:10:52.180 | 1. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the teaching of the gospel?