“The Spirit dwelling within us prays, not always in words and thoughts, but in a breathing and a being that is deeper than utterance,” said Andrew Murray. (Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 189.)
“The praying of the Spirit is too deep for words . . . it cannot be expressed. It is felt only in the heart; it never comes to the surface of the lips; it never can be expressed. In other words, these are those deep yearnings of the soul that all of us feel at times for more of God for ourselves, or, perhaps, for someone else,’” said Pastor Ray Stedman. (Ray C. Stedman, “Prayer, Providence, Praise,” Sept. 9, 1962, No: 15, Catalog No: 19)
The Spirit not only intercedes for us with groanings, but He also interprets our aching sighs, stumbling sentences, and even our senseless babbling. He understands what we’re trying to express and explains what we mean to God.
When our granddaughter was two years old and she first started talking she babbled, repeating only an intelligible word or two, such as “Mama” and “Papa.” Now she is saying lots more words, but she still says “words” that make sense to her but not us.
She becomes frustrated when she keeps repeating the same unintelligible word, but I don’t know what she is saying. I can tell by the look on her face that it is perfectly clear to her.
Recently, she kept pointing and repeating the same word sounds, and I said, “I don’t understand you.”
“Yes, you do,” She replied.
We can be grateful that the Spirit of God understands us clearly; He interprets our babbling and crying and sighing. He understands what we mean and presents our needs to the Father.
Our burdens may also be so deep we cannot talk about them or we have such internal conflict we don’t know how to express ourselves to God. Our trials may be so heartbreaking and horrifying we are overcome by grief and shock to the point of numbness. Our thinking may become irrational. Our spirit groans inside us, and we cannot talk.
Yet we have this assurance, the indwelling Spirit interprets our sighs and presents them to God for us. He hears and comforts us in our sorrow. “So it is with those prayers which are all broken up, wet with tears, . . . and anguish and bitterness of spirit, our gracious Lord reads them as a man reads a book, and they are written in a character which he fully understands.” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)
The indwelling Spirit“ creates all real prayer,” when our mind is incapable of reason and “of clothing its emotion in words.” “I pray you never think lightly of the supplications of your anguish. . . . That which is thrown up from the depth of the soul, when it is stirred with a terrible tempest, is more precious than pearl or coral, for it is the intercession of the Holy Spirit, ” said Spurgeon. (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)
The Mind of the Spirit
God searches our heart and knows the mind of the Spirit (Rom. 8:27). “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds” (Jer. 17:10 esv).
The Holy Spirit tests our thinking to see how sincere we really are. He sees the hidden things deep in our heart when we pray. He examines our motives, gets to the bottom of the truth, and strips away all our pretenses.
He convicts us, challenges us to change, and corrects the direction we are headed in. We can’t hide anything from God when we pray. “For he knows the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21 esv).
God is omniscient, meaning that He has perfect knowledge of all things. He knows absolutely everything about us. “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether” ( Ps. 139:1, 4 esv). God reads our unexpressed thoughts; He knows every hidden thing about us.
Before a thought is our own, “it is foreknown and understood by” God, said Spurgeon. No one can else can hear what we think, and we do not fully understand or know our own mind. (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1419)
“He is intimately acquainted with our person, nature, and character. How good it is for us to know the God who knows us! Divine knowledge is extremely thorough and searching.” (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1418-19)
God is aware of every careless thought. When we ask God to do something, He knows our true intentions, those that are right and wrong, and those we rationalize or minimize. God knows every good and evil desire.
When I ask God for something, He knows my motives even when I don’t understand them myself. One quick glimpse of my heart and God can “sum up all the meanings of my soul.” His glances are so piercing “everything about me is transparent.” (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1419)
Spurgeon said, “My most common and casual acts and my most needful and necessary movements are noted by” the Lord. He knows “the thoughts that regulate them. Whether I sink in lowly self-renunciation or ascend in pride,” He sees “the motions of my mind as well as those of my body. This is a fact to be remembered every moment: when sitting to consider or rising to act, we are seen, known, and read by Jehovah our Lord.” (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1419)
3 comments:
Hi Sheila...love your teaching on spirit led prayer. I especially love praying in the Spirit as He leads in my prayer language: For one who speaks in an [unknown] tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding]2CorAmp. This always gives us the assurance that we are praying according to His perfect will....also, when we pray His word over people we are doing the same thing, in essence. Intercession is not taught much in churches these days.....Dixie
Dear Dixie,
Thank you for your comment. i wanted to clarify one point. We can have the assurance that we are praying according to God's perfect will when we don't have a heavenly prayer language. When we groan in prayer and our needs are too deep for words, God hears us and answers according to His perfect will. When we relinquish ourselves and desires to Him, He also moves us to pray according to His plans and purposes, and when we see them come to pass we know His will was done.
Hi Sheila...Oh, no need to clarify, for I am assured that there are so many ways to pray in true intercession and we cannot box God in with dictating how to do it. Praying in our heavenly language, which is available to all, in the privacy of our own prayer times, is a valuable tool for all and edifies our own spirits at the same time. Yes, and amen, the groanings, crying, and sheer travail are indeed the spirit of God praying through us in the deepest of prayer. God reveals so much to us through this type of prayer. Thank you and God Bless for sharing your thoughts with me, Sheila...love, D.
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