Bill's question continues to stir my thoughts and I came across a very helpful instruction in my devotions this morning. When I pray for each of you and others on my list, I must admit that most of my prayers originate in my flesh and what I "think" would be most helpful for you this day. I pray for your physical protection and health for you, your wife, children and grandchildren, I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you with His wisdom and power, I pray that you would be protected from our enemy and empowered to overcome temptation.
R.A. Torrey writes the following on the subject of how to approach your prayer time when you are making requests to the Father.
"The Holy Spirit has the power to teach us how to pray. In Jude 20, we read: "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit." And again in Ephesians 6:18: "Praying always...in the Spirit."
The Holy Spirit guides the believer in prayer. The disciples did not know how to pray as they should, so they came to Jesus and said, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). "We do not know what we should pray for as we ought" (Romans 8:26), but we have another Helper right at hand to help us (John 14:16-17). "The Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses" (Rom. 8:26).
True prayer is prayer "in the Spirit" (Eph. 6:18), the prayer the Spirit inspires and directs.
When we come into God's presence to pray, we should recognize our ignorance of what we should pray for or how we should pray. With this awareness, we should then look to the Holy Spirit and cast ourselves utterly on Him to direct our prayers.
Rushing heedlessly into God's presence and asking the first thing that comes to our minds, or what someone asks us to pray for is NOT praying "in the Spirit" and is not true prayer. We must wait for and surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit. The prayer that the Holy Spirit inspires is the prayer that God the Father answers.
From Romans 8:26-27, we learn that the longings the Holy Spirit creates in our hearts are often too deep for utterance; too deep, apparently, for clear and definite comprehension on the part of the believer himself, in whom the Holy Spirit is working. God Himself must search the heart to know "what the mind of the Spirit is" (v.27) in these unuttered and unutterable longings. But God does know "what the mind of the Spirit is." He does know what those Spirit-given longings mean, even if we do not.
These longings are "according to the will of God." (v.28), and He grants them. He is "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask, or think, according to the power that works in us" (Eph. 3:20). Other times, the Spirit's leadings in prayer are so plain that we "pray with the Spirit, and...with the understanding" (I Cor. 14:15).
From How to Obtain Fullness of Power, by R.A. Torrey
So brothers, I see once again that a deep spiritual life is impossible when I try to cram my prayer time into a hurried 10 or 15 minutes. While it is certainly better than no prayer, when I rush and depend on my own flesh for the source of my prayer, I am far from the clear biblical directions for how I am to pray. Listening for that "still small voice" requires time, quiet, and calm...these tend to be in short supply in my daily life. Before going to bed last night I committed to rising at 5am to seek God and have quiet time for reflection and prayer. Even this hour of the day is apt to get busy with all the worldly "stuff" that is anxiously waiting for the day.
I must set aside ample time to be still...to be quiet...to be undisturbed, if I am to truly uphold my brothers in prayer that is Spirit-led and not Steve-led! It makes perfect sense that the Holy Spirit knows what awaits each one of us in the coming day. He knows what woman may cross our path to tempt us, what television show or internet page our flesh will be drawn to, and what part of our family or marriage the enemy is most likely to attack. Since the Spirit knows this, should I not first and foremost seek to pray "in the Spirit" and trust His leading?
Have a blessed day brothers and stay strong!
Steve
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