Who Prays When You Pray?
Who Prays When You Pray? A K Whitehead
When we pray, who does the praying? Almost any knowledgable
Christian will give the same response to that question. In fact,
it is a questions which separates the knowledgable from the less
knowledgeable Christian.
The response, of course, ought to be that it is the Holy Spirit
who does the praying, not us. For example, Paul tells us in
Ephesians 6:18 that we should pray in the Spirit on all
occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. So however we
are praying and whatever we are praying for, it should be the
Holy Spirit who is doing the praying.
But is it?
Establishing Our Priorities Sometimes we are so caught up
in our own problems and difficulties that we perhaps
miss-remember what Paul tells us in Romans 8. 26. We behave as
if he said that, when we do not know what to pray for, the Holy
Spirit will pray on our behalf.
In fact, when we think about it, that would be a contradiction
of Ephesians 6. 18. Of course, what Paul actually says in Romans
8:26 is that the "Spirit helps us in our weakness." This
weakness is a general condition, not a specific one! For Paul
goes on to say that "We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words
cannot express." (New International Version).
Again note that there is a general statement here: "We do not
know...", He does not say "On those occasion when we do not know
what to pray for..."
We often think we know what to pray for. Some of us may consider
that we always know what to pray for. We either ignore what Paul
says, or we do not know what he says, or we do not want to meet
what he says "head on", as it were.
In effect, we establish our own priorities in prayer. Moreover,
we establish in them preference to whatever the priorities of
the Holy Spirit happen to be.
Some Of Our Problems There are several important problems
which we tend to have in allowing the Spirit to establish his
own priorities in our prayers.
1. We lack faith. We do have faith, certainly, but do we
use it? If we don't, it will not grow. Here, we need to have
sufficient faith to know that the Spirit does hear us and
responds to us.
2. We lack trust. This is certainly a strict concomitant
of faith. If we do not have sufficient of the former, we shall
certainly be deficient in the latter! Can we trust the Spirit to
pray through us? and for what is most needed at this time?
3. We lack experience. If we don't exercise our faith,
and if we don't trust, we shall never accumulate that essential
experience of allowing the Spirit to pray through us. We shall
never know whether he does or doesn't
Establishing the Priorities Of The Holy Spirit So how do
we accumulate that experience? Simply by doing what the New
testament tells us to do. In chapter 14 of John's gospel Jesus
gives us a whole list of what the Spirit will do for us as a
consequence of his indwelling.
If we really do believe in that indwelling of the Spirit, we
should know that he is always there for us to turn to. And not
least in prayer. In fact, looking at what Jesus says in this
passage, prayer is by far the easiest way to learn how the
Spirit communicates with us.
So next time we come to pray, we do not arrive with a self-
generated list of what we think we ought to be praying about.
Instead, we: 1. Make a deliberate effort to come to an internal
state of quietness. There are various ways of doing that. One
pray-er used to stand before his chair and reflect that here he
was going to meet God. Or try a very reflectively prayed formal
prayer. Or spend time bringing before God all those sins through
which you have offended him since the last time you prayed.
These are just helps at the start.
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead your pray. Then "listen". Not for
some inner or external voice to speak, but for the Spirit to
speak his thoughts into your mind. They will like as not simply
come as thoughts.
Have the courage of faith to follow them. Have the courage not
to pray anything if nothing comes. The pastor of the largest
parish in the world, Paul Youngi Cho says that he never preaches
on Sunday what the Spirit has not given him on Saturday. If he
receives nothing, he simply does not preach.
It is as simple as that. If you practice Christian meditation on
Scripture this will all be very easy for you because one cannot
properly meditate on God's word by doing it one's self. The
Spirit has to do it. We learn how to let him. In the process one
learns how to recognise the different ways in which The Holy
Spirit speaks to us.
Although it is easier through meditation, we can still learn to
listen and hear and be guided by him through other forms of
prayer.