Praying in the Spirit

People who Pray


Ephesians 6:18-20


The puritans referred to prayer as a “Means of Grace”. i.e. We experience God and receive from him when we pray.

What is Prayer in the Spirit?

1. Normal Christian prayer

Ephesians 2:18: “For through Jesus we have access to the Father through the One Spirit”. It’s not special prayer by special people. All Christians pray in the Spirit through Jesus (the mediator who perfects our imperfect prayers), to the Father who loves to give gifts to his children.

2. Prayer empowered by the Spirit for otherwise weak people

Romans 8:26: “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 through wordless groans”.

3. Prayer in the Spirit is an alternative to anxiety

What do we do when we don’t pray for everything? We worry about it instead! “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!”

4. Prayer in the Spirit is an alternative to hard heartedness or fatalism

We can grow numb to the issues in our world. Prayer is rebellion against the evil status quo. (Keller) Jim Cymbala: “I despaired at the thought my life might slip by without seeing God show himself mightily on our behalf. Carol and I didn’t simply want to mark time I longed and cried out for God to change everything. One day I told God I would rather die than merely tread water throughout my career in the ministry, always preaching about the power of the word and spirit but never seeing it.”

5. Prayer in the Spirit is where God speaks and breaks through

Revelation 1:10: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. The Apostle John received revelation whilst in a state of prayer. Acts 2 (In Acts 1 they're praying and then the Spirit comes) Acts 4- they’re praying and the Spirit comes.


The more we pray the more we sense our need to pray - and the more we sense a need to pray - the more we want to pray.


Questions:

  • Prayer as a Means of Grace. In what ways does prayer help us to become a conduit for God’s grace in your experience?

  • Theology. How does Ephesians 2:18 help us when we come to pray?

  • Practice. What lifestyle choices or disciplines help you to pray?

  • Do you find it easier to pray spontaneously or through agendas and lists of prayer requests? Why?

  • How does prayer alleviate worry?

  • How does prayer help us to see that God is in control?