The Holy Spirit & Prayer (iii)

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

(Eph.6:18-20)

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

(Jude 20-21)

The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. It was Jesus who told us that when the Spirit comes He would glorify Him. He longs to bring people to Jesus and for people to be like Jesus. When we consider Jesus – the Man anointed by the Spirit (Is.11:1-3; 42:1; 48:16 etc.) – one of the things that strikes us is His experience of prayer. We noted in a previous study that everything Jesus does, He does by the Spirit. His life of prayer too was shaped by and inspired by the Spirit. There is a great deal we could say about Jesus and His experience of prayer, notably how much time He gives to it. He spends entire nights in prayer, and often withdraws from teaching and performing miracles in order to pray. We can surmise certain things Jesus prayed about, but much of what was spoken between the Son and the Father in prayer remains discreetly hidden. One notable exception is recorded for us in John 17 (…there is a series of sermons on John 17 on the MIE website).

It is remarkable that the disciples approach Jesus to ask Him to teach them to pray (Lk.11:1). It is the only recorded instance in the Gospels of the disciples asking Jesus to teach them anything! The impact of witnessing (or perhaps joining) Jesus at prayer was so compelling, the disciples longed for something comparable in their own experience. Note that Jesus finishes responding to the disciples’ request by teaching them about the necessity and role of the Holy Spirit in their experience of prayer (Lk.11:13). Possibly Jesus had Zechariah in mind, who refers to the Spirit as ‘a spirit of grace and supplication’ (Zech.12:10); supplication being the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly. John Owen, commenting on this verse points out that the word is only ever used of vocal prayer (The Spirit and the Church, part 3, chap.2). He goes on to explain that Zechariah is referring ‘to the Holy Spirit working in believers to produce gracious inclinations to the duty of prayer … enabling every believer to pray according to His mind and will’. And it is this same Holy Spirit who is poured into the life of the church at Pentecost.

We should be anticipating this same Spirit to lead the Church – the community of the Spirit – into this same terrain. As a Spirit-filled Church is one focussed on Jesus, and growing into the likeness of Jesus, so it follows the example of Jesus (i.e. in this context, His example of prayer). And given the Spirit’s delight in fellowship and unity, the prayer life of a Spirit-filled Church will have a strong corporate dynamic (see Acts 2:42, where the prayer here is corporate). That this is the case requires only the most cursory read through the book of Acts (4:23-31, 12:12 etc., though not exclusively so, e.g. 9:40; 10:9f.).

In the economy of God, failure in prayer – whether individually or corporately - is failure everywhere. It is only as we pray ‘in the Spirit’, allowing Him to teach us from His Word what to pray and how to pray, can our prayers be anything other than empty words devoid of power. To cite Smeaton once again: ‘Unless this fresh baptism is maintained in its intensity, or repeatedly renewed, declension will certainly ensue; for to be content, like many declining Churches to merely hold a form of sound words when the Spirit is forfeited or sinned away, is in the last degree, delusive…’ (Smeaton, Second Division, Lecture 6).

Before we become too despondent and discouraged, we do well to remember that Jesus is still praying. It is a remarkable thing to think that Jesus is interceding for us (Rom.8:26-27); and that He is mediating our prayers to the Father (I Tim.2:5; Heb.4:14-16 & 8:6). So close is communion with us to the heart of the living God, however, that we don’t only have Jesus praying for us, but the Spirit praying in us and through us too. So critical is this in the life of the believer that God is not willing to leave us alone in it! Both the Son and the Spirit are deeply and intimately involved in our life of prayer. This should give us tremendous confidence and hopefulness as we turn to prayer. It should also give us a sense of the importance of praying in way that is shaped by the Scriptures. As the Book inspired by the Spirit, it remains for us an authoritative guide to our life of prayer.

Questions

On the basis of our experience of the Spirit in prayer, do you think MIE is a Spirit-filled Church? Why / why not? What – if anything - needs to change?

How would you summarise Jesus’ response to the Disciple’s request that He teach them to pray (Lk.11:1-13)? How does this shape your own life of prayer?

Do you think it is OK for Christians to not go to their Church’s prayer meeting?

What do you think is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and liturgy? In what way is the absence of liturgy a sign of the absence of the Holy Spirit?

Read Rom.8:14-19 & 26-27

What does it mean that we are adopted as children of God (v.15)? Do you think Paul is being (unintentionally? …or culturally?) sexist in talking about ‘adoption to sonship’ (v.15)?

How does the Spirit’s work of assuring us ‘that we are God’s children’ (v.16) shape our experience of prayer? How do you think the Spirit testifies with our spirits? What would it be like to have this happen? How would spiritual insecurity affect our life of prayer?

Do you agree with Paul that ‘we don’t know what we ought to pray for’ (v.26)? How does that shape your approach to prayer?

What does Paul mean when he talks about ‘wordless groans’ (v.26)?

Who is ‘He who searches our hearts’ (v.27)? How does this put our experience of prayer within the life of the Trinity?

What do you think the Spirit prays for us? If the Spirit intercedes for us, then why do we need to pray at all (v.27)?

Memory Passage:

Restore us again, God our Saviour, and put away your displeasure toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation. I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—but let them not turn to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

Ps.85:4-11

For further reflection:

The Kingdom of God cannot be advanced by merely human effort, by our own wisdom, structures, administration, money, counsel, planning or strategy. Let me be so bold as to suggest that we are so used to operating without the manifest presence of the Spirit, that it might sound strange even to intimate that something (better: Someone) is missing!? Indeed, we may find the idea that our Church is not filled by the Spirit offensive. But let me press the question. Is the Spirit gloriously present to work in our midst? Would we know? How?

It was A.W. Tozer who once rhetorically wondered whether there would be any discernible difference in the life of our Churches if the Lord withdrew His Holy Spirit from amongst us. What percentage of Church activity would carry on regardless? Perhaps nowhere is this a more penetrating question than in the arena of our life of prayer, by which I mean, corporate prayer. One of the most important things I think we can do as a Church is to plead together (supplicate) with our Father, for His Spirit. My own conviction remains that the first evidence He had answered our prayer would be the revival of our prayer meetings. We may look for many different phenomena to satisfy ourselves that the Spirit is in our midst. Such may prove unreliable guides (Matt.24:24; II Thess.2:9). But one that would be sure and certain, would be the revival of our life of prayer. A Spirit-anointed Church is a praying Church.