The Holy Spirit and Prayer

The Holy Spirit and Prayer

By Andrew Murray,
Living a Prayerful Life
(Excerpts)


The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer.
He is called in Zechariah 12:10 ‘‘a spirit of grace and supplication.’’

Romans 8:26–27:
‘‘In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.’’

The Christian left to himself does not know how to pray or what he ought to pray for.
But God has stooped to meet us in this helplessness of ours by giving us the Holy Spirit to pray for us.
That operation of His Spirit is deeper than our thoughts or feelings, but is acknowledged and answered by God.

Our first work, therefore, ought to be to come into God’s presence not with our ignorant prayers, not with many words and thoughts, but in the confidence that the divine work of the Holy Spirit is being carried out within us.

This confidence will encourage reverence and quietness and will also enable us, in dependence on the help that the Spirit gives, to lay our desires and deepest needs before God.

The supreme lesson for every prayer is first of all to commit to the leading of the Holy Spirit and in total dependence on Him to give Him first place.
Through Him your prayer will have value you cannot imagine.
Through Him also you will learn to express your desires in the name of Christ.
Such faith would be protection against listlessness and despair in our place of prayer! Think of it!

In every prayer the triune God takes a part—the Father who hears, the Son in whose name we pray, and the Spirit who prays for us and in us.

How important it is that we are in right relationship to the Holy Spirit and that we understand His work!

He is the Spirit of light and wisdom, who leads us into the heavenly secret of God’s overflowing grace.
He is the Spirit of love and power, who teaches us to witness for Christ and to labor for souls with tender pity.

What a different life mine would be if I knew the Spirit as the Spirit of prayer!

The Spirit would possess us entirely.
Just as my soul has my whole body for its dwelling place and service, so the Holy Spirit would have my body and soul as His dwelling place, entirely under His control.

‘‘I seek you with my whole heart.’’
The Spirit will make such words more and more the motto of our lives.

He will cause us to recognize that what remains in us of double-mindedness is truly sinful.
He will reveal Christ as the almighty deliverer from all sin, who is always near to defend us.
He will lead us in this way in prayer.
He will help us to forget ourselves.
He will make us willing to offer ourselves for training as intercessors to whom God can entrust the fulfillment of His plans and who day and night cry to Him to avenge His church of her adversary.

God, help us to know the Spirit and to revere Him as the Spirit of prayer!



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