KNOWING & DOING 1

A Teaching Quarterly for Discipleship of Heart and Mind This article originally appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Knowing & Doing.

C.S. LEWIS INSTITUTE

Praying In The Spirit

by J. Oswald Sanders
Reprinted by permission from his book Prayer Power Unlimited

have always been great students of the Word. “

...the Spirit Himself It naturally follows that praying in the Spirit means to
pray in harmony with the will of God. Being God Him-
intercedes for us.... self, the Spirit knows and can interpret God’s will to us.
Indeed, this is one of the very reasons why He has been
Romans 8:26 NIV
given to the Church. “He intercedes for the saints ac-
cording to the will of God” (Rom. 8:27). We can therefore
count on Him to enable us to pray in harmony with the

I n the previous lessons in the school of prayer we ana-

lyzed the various elements in prayer, reviewed the
prayer life of the Master Teacher, showed the place the
will of God.
Prayer in the Spirit is prayer whose supreme object is
the glory of God, and only in a secondary sense is it a
promises of God play in prayer, and considered two of blessing for ourselves or for others. This is not natural to
the conditions of answered prayer. We now come to the us, for it is our natural tendency to be more concerned
extremely important lesson of the part played by the with our own interests and glory. The Holy Spirit will
Holy Spirit in the prayer life of the disciple of Christ. help us in this weakness, and will impart the motivation
“True prayer,” wrote Samuel M. Zwemer, “is God to shift our center from self to God.
the Holy Spirit talking to God the Father in the name of Samuel Chadwick points out that the Holy Spirit
God the Son, and the believer’s heart is the prayer- never works alone—it is always in cooperation with
room.” men. “He depends upon human cooperation for the
There is scriptural warrant for asserting that our mediation of His mind, the manifestation of His truth,
chronic disinclination and reluctance to pray, as well as and the effectual working of His will.... We pray in the
our ignorance of how to pray aright, find their complete Spirit, and the Spirit maketh intercession for us.”
answer in the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
Hence Paul’s injunction, “Pray at all times in the Spirit” Our Two Advocates
(Eph. 6:18). In this prayer life, the believer has the aid of two Advo-
The Holy Spirit is the Source and Sustainer of our cates who continually make themselves available and
spiritual life. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by plead his cause. How rich we are through this twofold
the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Since prayer is represented in ministry.
Scripture as an essential factor in progress in the Chris- The Son of God intercedes for us before the throne of
tian life, it is not surprising to find that the Spirit of God glory, securing for us the benefits of His mediatorial
is deeply involved in this sphere. work. “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). We are
The Spirit and the Word thus the objects of His advocacy and intercession, which
It hardly need be said that to pray in the Spirit means to He carries on apart from us in heaven.
pray in harmony with the Word of God, which He has The Spirit of God is Christ’s Advocate in our hearts to
inspired. He does not speak with two voices. He will meet our deepest needs. In announcing the advent of the
never move us to pray for something that is not sanc- Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “If I do not go away, the Helper
tioned by Scripture. [Advocate, or Intercessor] shall not come to you; but if I
“There is an inseparable union between the Spirit, go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). “You know Him
the Word and prayer,” writes H. W. Frost, “which indi- because He abides with you, and will be in you” (John
cates that the Spirit will always lead the saint to make 14:17). Paul gives further light on His activity in prayer.
much of the Word, and especially God’s promises in the “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too
Word. ...This explains the fact that the great pray-ers deep for words” (Rom. 8:26). We are thus the vehicles of
Praying in the Spirit 2

the Spirit’s intercession, which He carries on within us, who desire an audience with the king. This is exactly
through our redeemed personalities. what the Spirit does for us.
Writing on this aspect of the Spirit’s ministry, An- 2. As “the Spirit of grace and of supplication” (Zech.
drew Murray said, 12:10), He overcomes our reluctance, working in us the
desire to pray. He graciously yet faithfully reveals to us
Just as wonderful and real is the divine work of God on our true heart-needs, and He leads us to seek their ful-
the throne graciously hearing, and by His mighty power fillment in prayer.
answering prayer. Just as divine as is the work of the 3. He imparts a sense of sonship and acceptance
Son, interceding and securing and transmitting the that creates freedom and confidence in the presence of
answer from above, is the work of the Holy Spirit in us in God. “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
the prayer that awaits and obtains the answer. The hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal 4:6). Children are
intercession within is as divine as the intercession uninhibited in the presence of an understanding and
above. loving father, and so may we be in our prayers.
4. He helps us in the ignorance of our minds and in
Weakness and inadequacy in the art of prayer are not the infirmities of our bodies, as well as in the maladies of
surprising to God. He never intended that prayer should the soul. “In the same way the Spirit helps our weak-
be left to our own unaided faculties. So He gave the Holy nesses; for we do not know how to pray as we should”
Spirit to instruct, inspire, and illumine our hearts and (Rom. 8:26), or as it is in the King James Version, “We
minds. Unaided by Him, we would be likely to pray for know not what we should pray for as we ought.”
things not only contrary to God’s will but injurious to We can count on the Spirit’s aid in guiding us into
ourselves. the will of God through illumining Scripture to us and
through stimulating and directing our mental processes.
What Does It Mean to Pray “in the Spirit”? He also purifies our desires and redirects them towards
We must first understand the meaning of the phrase, “in the will of God, for He alone knows and can interpret
the Spirit.” The text (Eph. 6:18) is literally, “in spirit,” God’s will and purpose. “The thoughts of God no one
without the definite article. H. C. G. Moule interprets it knows except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11). He also
as meaning surrounded by His presence and power. helps by improving our motivation and inspiring confi-
“The Holy Spirit was to be ‘the Place’ of the prayer, in dence and faith in a loving Father.
the sense of being the surrounding, penetrating, trans- 5. He takes our faltering and imperfect prayers, adds
forming atmosphere of the spirit of the praying Chris- to them the incense of the merits of Christ, and puts
tian.” them in a form acceptable to our heavenly Father. “An-
Kenneth Wuest points out that “in the Spirit” is loca- other angel came and stood at the altar, holding a
tive of sphere. That is, all true prayer is exercised in the golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that
sphere of the Holy Spirit, motivated and empowered by he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the
Him. The expression praying in the Holy Spirit is also in- golden altar which was before the throne” (Rev 8:3). He
strumental of means. We pray by means of the Holy takes our inarticulate groanings and infuses the right
Spirit, in dependence on Him. meaning into them.
It is clear that praying in the Spirit means much more 6. He lays special burdens of prayer on the believer
than praying by the Spirit’s help, although that is in- who is sensitively walking in fellowship with Him. Such
cluded. We pray by means of and in dependence on the a burden, intolerable at times, was laid on the prophets;
Spirit’s help, but the Spirit is the atmosphere in which the often they could get relief only through prolonged and
believer lives. So long as He is ungrieved, He is able to earnest prayer.
guide us in our petitions and create in us the faith that Daniel 10:2-3 refers to one such experience: “In those
claims the answer. Our prayers will then be in substance days I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire
the same as the intercessions of the Spirit within. weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or
So, praying in the Spirit is praying along the same wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all,
lines, about the same things, and in the same Name as until the entire three weeks were completed.” But the
the Holy Spirit. answer came at the proper time—God’s time.
When He lays such prayer-burdens on the hearts of
How Does the Spirit Help Us in Prayer? His children, He intends to answer the prayer through
1. It is He who introduces us into the presence of the their intercessions. He will impart the strength to pray
Father. “For through Him we...have our access in one through until the answer comes.
Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). The picture behind The foregoing considerations would lead us to con-
access is that of a court official who introduces people clude that to be able to pray prevailingly, we must be filled
 3

with the Holy Spirit. “We are never really men of prayer
in the best sense, until we are filled with the Holy Spirit.”
A native of New Zealand, the late J.
This necessity is emphasized by J. Stuart Holden:
Oswald Sanders (1902-1992) was a
Here is the secret of prevailing prayer, to pray under a consulting director for Overseas Mis-
direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, whose petitions for sionary Fellowship, the organization
us and through us are always according to the Divine founded by Hudson Taylor in 1865.
purpose, and hence certain of answer. “Praying in the He preached and taught in confer-
Holy Ghost is but co-operating with the will of God, and ences in many countries and wrote
such prayer is always victorious. How many Christians over 40 books on the Christian life,
there are who cannot pray, and who seek by effort,
including The Incomparable Christ, Satan Is No Myth, and Enjoy-
resolve, joining prayer circles, etc., to cultivate in
ing Intimacy With God. He received the Order of the British
themselves the “holy art of intercession,” and all to no
purpose. Here for them and for all is the only secret of a Empire for Christian service and theological writing.
real prayer life “Be filled with the Spirit,” who is “the
Spirit of grace and supplication.” In his preface to Prayer Power Unlimited, Sanders writes:

The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed The supreme importance of prayer is tacitly admitted by
If Thou the Spirit give by which I pray: most evangelical Christians. It is accepted as an article of
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
faith. And yet there are few areas of the Christian life in
That of its nature self can nothing feed;
which there are more regretful confessions of failure and
Of good and pious works Thou art the seed,
That quickens only when Thou say’st it may; disappointment.
Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way The author does not pose as an au-
No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead. thority on the subject—only a fellow
MICHELANGELO student in the school of prayer; he is
very conscious of the heights yet to be
scaled.
Taken from Prayer Power Unlimited by J. Oswald Sanders, © 1997. Used by
permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids MI
4950l. All rights reserved.

Used by permission.

© 2004 C.S. L EWIS I NSTITUTE

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C.S. LEWIS INSTITUTE

Discipleship of Heart and Mind

In the legacy of C.S. Lewis,

the Institute endeavors to develop disciples who can
articulate, defend, and live faith in Christ
through personal and public life.